BIRDS or INDIANA. 573 



the other becoming lighter; "bill, greenish-yellow, encircled with a 

 black band near the end, usually complete, sometimes defective; the 

 tip and most of the cutting edges of the bill yellow; in high condition 

 the angle of the mouth, and a small spot beside the black, red; feet 

 olivaceous, obscured with dusky or bluish, and partly, yellow; the web, 

 bright chrome." Immature. Similar to the same stage of the last 

 species. All the changes are substantially the same as those of the 

 species just described. 



Length, 18.00-20.00; wing, 13.60-15.75; bill, 1.55-1.75. 



RANGE. North America, from Cuba and Mexico to Labrador and 

 Manitoba. Breeds from North Dakota and Michigan northward. 



Nest, on ground, in a depression; of grass. Eggs, 3 to 4, dark cream 

 or buffy, blotched with.brown and lavender gray, 2.39 by 1.71. 



Regular migrant and local winter resident in the same localities as 

 the last mentioned species. Mr. J. Grafton Parker says of it in the 

 vicinity of Chicago, on Lake Michigan: "Quite common winter resi- 

 dent. Not so abundant as the Herring Gull. . I have often found 

 large numbers of these gulls collected at the sewer outlets into Lake 

 Michigan. They stay here during the winter, except when we have 

 our severe cold snaps. Then they go south." He also reports a large 

 flock of old and young at Miller's, Ind., October 26, 1893. Over the 

 State generally they are seen most numerously as migrants in March, 

 April and May. They resemble the Herring Gull, except they are 

 smaller and have the ring around the bill. Like the Herring Gull, 

 they go north among the islands of the Great Lakes, and among the 

 interior lakes of the northern United States and of the British posses- 

 sions to breed. Mr. Charles L. Cass informs me of their breeding on 

 the Beaver Islands, near Petoskey, Mich. It breeds abundantly on 

 Gull Island, near Escanaba. Mr. Stebbins found this species and 

 the Common Tern occupying an island about an acre in extent in 

 Devil's Lake, Dakota, the first week of June. Mr. Stebbins says: "I 

 don't suppose you could lay down a two-foot rule anywhere without 

 each end of it striking a nest. It was common to find the terns and 

 gulls breeding side by side. Most of the gulls' nests were in the grass, 

 while those of the terns were in the sand. I did not find a gull's nest 

 with more htan three eggs, and a very few with two; whereas, several 

 hollows were found with as many as eighteen terns' eggs in them, 

 which had rolled together. Mr. Frazer noted them nesting in Labra- 

 dor. Mr. E. E. Thompson notes them as breeding at Lake Winnepeg. 

 Neither they, nor the Herring Gull, ordinarily reach the Arctic coast, 

 but the northern limit of their breeding range seems to be unknown. 



