CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 47 



59. Franklin Bosy Gull. 



Larus franklinii Sw. & Rich. 1831. 



Accidental on Hamilton bay, Ont., two specimens shot, one in 

 1865, the other later. {Mcllwraith) Although no specimens of 

 this species were taken, I am inclined to believe that they breed 

 in the Anderson river district. {Macfarlane .) This is a very com- 

 mon gull in the interior of the Northwest Territories, where it 

 frequents the shores of the larger lakes. It is generally seen in 

 flocks and is very noisy. It breeds in marshy places. {Richardson.) 

 After they arrive in Manitoba they follow the farmers in the fields 

 and gather ' cut-worms ' and other larvje turned up by the plough- 

 {Petcy Selwyn.) Shot by Spreadborough at Indian Head, Sask., 

 on May 20th 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 Saskatrhewan 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 fiat 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.) 



