BONAPARTIAN GULL. 213 
heeded us, and flew around our boats so close that any number might 
have been procured. My son Joun shot seventeen of them at a single 
discharge of his double-barrelled gun, but all of them proved to be 
young birds of the preceding year. On examining these specimens, we 
found no development of the ovaries in several, which, from their smaller 
size, we supposed to be females, nor any enlargement of the testes in the 
males ; and as these young birds kept apart from those which had brown 
and black hoods, I concluded that they would not breed until the fol- 
lowing spring. Their stomachs were filled with coleopterous «insects, 
which they caught on the wing, or picked up from the water, into 
which they fell in great numbers when overtaken by a cold fog, while 
attempting to cross the bay. On the 24th of August 1831, when at 
Eastport with my family, I shot ten of these Gulls. The adult birds 
had already lost their dark hood, and the young were in fine plumage: 
In the stomach of all were shrimps, very small fishes, and fat substances. 
The old birds were still in pairs. 
When exploring the Bay of Fundy, in May 1833, I was assured by 
the captain and sailors, as well as the intelligent pilot of the Revenue 
Tender, the Nancy, that this Gull bred in great abundance on the 
islands off Grand Manan; but unfortunately I was unable to certify 
the fact, as I set out for Labrador previous to the time at which they 
breed in that part of the country. None of them were observed on any 
part of the Gulf of St Lawrence, or on the coast of Labrador or New- 
foundland. In winter this species is common in the harbour of Charles- 
ton, but none are seen at that season near the mouths of the Missis- 
sippi. 
The flight of this Gull is light, elevated, and rapid, resembling in 
buoyancy that of some of our Terns more than that of most of our 
Gulls, which move their wings more sedately. 1 found the adult birds 
-in moult in August. Although their notes are different from those of 
all our other species, being shriller and more frequent, I am unable to 
represent them intelligibly by words 
Since I began to study the habits of Gulls, and observe their changes 
of plumage, whether at the approach of the love season, or in autumn, 
I have thought that the dark tint of their hoods was in the first instance 
caused by the extremities of the feathers then gradually changing from 
white to black or brown, without the actual renewal of the feathers 
themselves, as happens in some species of land-birds. At Eastport, I 
