48 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Breeding Notes.— This species, unlike the herring gull and the 

 ring-bill, breeds in communities in marshes. Hundreds of nests 

 were found June 13th, 1894, in a marshy lake about three miles 

 southeast of Crane lake; incubation was far advanced. The nests 

 were very bulky, made of reeds placed on the marsh, and floating 

 in about two and a half feet of water. Eggs in each case, three. 

 {Spreadborough) Breeds abundantly in the marshes at the south 

 end of Lake Manitoba. {Raine.) 



60. Bonaparte Gull. 



Larus philaddphia (Ord) , Gray. 1863. 



Frequent on the Atlantic coast as far north as Newfoundland. 

 Apparently quite common in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and not 

 rare in Hudson bay. A common spring and fall resident in 

 Ontario. 



This species is found from Manitoba to the Pacific and a few 

 doubtless breed in the prairie region, but its range is generally 

 north of that of Larus frank linii. No doubt the two are often con- 

 founded. Its breeding range is in the wooded country ex ending 

 from the Hudson bay westward to the marshes of the Yukon 

 where Dall found it breeding. It is rare on the coast of Alaska 

 but common along the British Columbian coast and very common 

 on all the lakes of the interior of that province. 



Breeding Notes. — Thirty-seven nests were taken between June 

 lOth and July lOth, in the wooded country in the vicinity of Fort 

 Anderson and on the lower Anderson river. The nests were all 

 built on trees, from four to twenty feet from the ground, and with 

 one exception were made of small sticks and twigs lined with hay 

 and mosses. {Ma farlone.) 



On June nth, 1891, I found a few pairs of this little gull breed- 

 ing in company with herring gulls, avocets and common terns on 

 an island in a small lake north of Rush lake, Sask. (See " Bird- 

 nesting in Northwest Canada," page 57.) One specimen of the 

 .bird was procured to prove identity. This bird usually makes its 

 nest in bushes and willows near the water, but in localities where 

 there are no bushes it makes its nest on the ground like the other 

 gulls. The eggs are similar to those of the Franklin gull, but are 

 smaller in size. {Raitie.) 



