58 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



the following which occurs in the transactions of the Ottawa 

 Field Naturalist Club for 1881, " On this excursion, which was 

 held about the 21st of May, we succeeded in discovering on one 

 of the many small lakes near the Cave, a nest of the common 

 Gull (Lanes argentatus) but we were unfortunately too late, as 

 not only were the eggs hatched, but the young had already left 

 the nest ; from this fact it is probable that, with this species, the 

 period of incubation is very early in the season. The nest, which 

 was very shallow, was built almost altogether of dried moss, and 

 was placed on the top of a small rock which stood about a foot 

 and a half out of the water towards one end of the lake." 



17 LARUS FRANKLINII Sw. & Rich. 59 



Franklin's Gull. 



Adult male: — Eyelids, neck, rump, tail and lower parts white, the latter 

 with the under-part of the wings, deeply tinged with rich rosy red; hood, 

 black, descending downwards on the nape and throat; mantle and wings, 

 bluish-grey; a band of black crosses the five outer primaries near the end, all 

 the quills feathers are tipped with white. Young, changing with age as in 

 other birds of this class. Length 15 inches. 



Hab. Interior of North America, breeding chiefly north of the United 

 States ; south in winter to South America. 



Eggs, four, greenish-gray with numerous brown markings, heaviest at the 

 larger end. 



When questioning that indefatigable sportsman, John Dynes, 

 about the rare birds he had seen on his many excursions round 

 the bay, he told me of a gull with a pink breast, which he had 

 sometimes seen in the fall, and finally in October, 1865, he 

 brought me one of the birds thus referred to, which proved to 

 be of this species ; subsequently I shot another in the month of 

 April, about the time the ice was breaking up ; the latter was in 

 a more advanced stage of plumage, but neither was mature. 



These are the only individuals I have heard of occur- 

 ring here, their line of migration being probably more toward 

 the Missisippi, as, according to Dr. Coues, they are not found 

 on the Atlantic coast. Professor Macoun found them at Gull 

 Lake in various stages of plumage. 



