CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 47 
59. Franklin Rosy Gull. 
Larus franklin Sw. & RicH. 1831. 
Accidental on Hamilton bay, Ont., two specimens shot, one in 
1865, the other later. (MWcllwraith.) Although no specimens of 
this species were taken, I am inclined to believe that they breed 
in the Anderson river district. (MWacfarlane.) This is a very com- 
mon gullin the interior of the Northwest Territories, where it 
frequents the shores of the larger lakes. It is generally seen in 
flocks and is verynoisy. It breedsin marshy places. (Azchardson.) 
After they arrive in Manitoba they follow the farmers in the fields 
and gather ‘cut-worms’ and other larve turned up by the plough. 
(Percy Selwyn.) Shot by Spreadborough at Indian Head, Sask., 
on May 2oth with stomachs full of grasshoppers, showing they 
had come from far to the south. They are very abundant through- 
out the marshy parts of Manitoba during summer, breeding in 
nearly all large marshes. In Saskatchewan they are also abund- 
ant and breed in great numbers, where there are marshes, as far 
west as Cypress lake. Later in the season they gather in great 
numbers around the larger salt lakes, and mix with the ring-bill 
and herring gulls. 
I found this gull everywhere abundant from Portage la Prairie 
to Edmonton, about the sloughs and lakes or following the plow 
of the settler. It is a very abundant species in Manitoba congre- 
gating in thousands in migration about the larger sloughs and 
small lakes, and while the bulk of them pass north in the spring 
many remain to breed and can be observed at all times feeding 
about the ploughed fields or following at the heels of the plough- 
man fighting with the cowbirds and blackbirds for the grubs and 
insect life uprooted. But abundant as I have seen them in Mani- 
toba, the numbers are exceeded abnormally further west. While 
driving into the Eagle hills about 40 miles west of Saskatoon on 
July 30, 1906, we passed an extensive mud flat and salty slough on 
which rested between four and five solid acres of gulls. I fired a 
shot into the air to note the effect and they rose as one bird in 
such a cloud that their wings clashed together in a frantic 
flapping and their discordant cries were almost deafening. It 
would be entirely impossible to estimate the number of birds in 
this flock. (Geo. Atkinson.) 
