574 Kepoet of State Geologist. 



13. (59.) Larus franklinii Sw. and Rich. 



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-gray; a band of black crosses the five outer 

 primaries near the end; all the quill feathers are tipped with, white. 

 Young. — Changing with age as with other birds of this class." (Mc- 

 Ilwraith.) 



Length, 13.50-15.00; wing, 11.25; bill, 1.30. 



Eange. — Western South America, from ChiU north through the 

 interior of ISTorth America to the Arctic regions. Breeds from Iowa 

 northward. 



Nest, old water-soaked marsh vegetation about open water in 

 marshy lakes. Eggs, 1-3; ground color from dark chocolate, sooty, 

 creamy-brown and dirty- white, through all the shades of light green 

 and light drab; variously marked with blotches or spots of umber, 

 wreathed at larger end, and with lilac shell markings, 2.04 by 1.38. 



Occasional migrant. It has been occasionally seen by Mr. J. W. 

 Byrldt at Michigan City. Mr. Eobert Ridgway has frequently seen 

 gulls on the Wabash Eiver, which he was disposed to regard as speci- 

 mens of Larus atricilla, but which, after an acquaintance with that 

 species, he considers as being more probably L. frankUnii. (Dr. 

 Wheaton, Birds of Ohio, p. 551.) 



This gull is a bird of the interior, and not of the sea. Its migra- 

 tions are through the interior of North America, and it breeds in the 

 interior from southwestern Minnesota and Dakota northward' 

 through Manitoba. The northern limit of its breeding range has not 

 been noted, and it is not given by the reports on Alaskan ornithology 

 as having been taken in that region. Occasionally specimens are 

 taken east of the Mississippi River, though the bulk of the species- 

 migrates to the westward of that stream. It has been reported from 

 Illinois, near Warsaw (Bull. iVuttall. Orn. Club, Vol. Y, p. 33); from' 

 Milwaukee, Wis. (Nelson, Birds of Northeastern Illinois, p. 146); 

 mouth of Fox River, Wis. (Cooke, Bird ^ligration in Mis- 

 sissippi Valley, 1888, pp. 56-7); and near Hamilton Ontario (Mc- 

 Ilwraith, Birds of Ontario, p. 49). An interesting account of their 

 habits and nesting in Western Minnesota is given in the Ornithologist 

 and Oologist, Vol. XI, 1886, pp. 54 and 55, from which I have gath- 

 ered the description of the nest and eggs. 



