50 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



LARUS PHILADELPHIA (Obd.). 

 22. Bonaparte's Gull. (60) 



Tarsus about equal to middle toe and claw. Small; 12-14; wing, 94-104; 

 tarsus, IJ; bill, IJ-IJ; very slender, like a Tern's. Adult in -mmme)- :— BUI, 

 black ; mantle, pearly blue, much paler than in atrirUla ; hood, slaty-plumbeous 

 with white touches on the eyelids ; many wing coverts white ; feet, chrome- 

 yellow, tinged with coral red ; webs, vermilion. Primaries finally : — The first 

 5-6 with the shafts white except at tip ; first white, with outer web and 

 extreme tip black ; second white, more broadly crossed with black ; 3rd to 6th- 

 8th with the black successively decreasing. In winter no hood, but a dark 

 auricular spot. Young : — Mottled and patched abo\e with brown or gray, and 

 usually a dusky bar on the wing ; the tail with a black bar, the primaries with 

 more black, the bill dusky, much of the lower mandible flesh-colored or 

 yellowish, as are the feet. 



Hab. — Whole of North America, breeding mostly north of the United 

 States ; south in winter to Mexico and Central America. 



The nest is usually placed on an elevation, in a tree, bush, or on a high 

 stump ; it is composed of sticks and grass with a lining of soft vegetable 

 material. 



Eggs, three or four, greenish-gray spotted, and blotched with brown and 

 lilac of various shades. 



About the middle of May this dainty little gull arrives in small 

 flocks, and for a week or two enlivens the shores of Hamilton Bay 

 with its airy gambols, but soon passes on farther north to its breeding 

 grounds. In the fall it returns, subdued in dress and manners, 

 remains till the weather begins to get cold,, and then retires to the 

 south to spend the winter. 



It has a wide distribution, being found at some period of the year 

 at almost every point on the continent. Speaking of this species in 

 the " Birds of the North- West," Dr. Coues says : " This little gull 

 holds its own, from the Labrador crags, against which the waves of 

 an angered ocean ceaselessly beat, to the low, sandy shores of the 

 Gulf, caressed by the soothing billows of a tropical sea." 



Macoun mentions it as breeding on all the lakes of any size 

 throughout the North-West, and Dr. Bell has found it along the 

 Nelson River and at York Factory on Hudson's Bay. 



In Lake Erie, a little way out from the mouth of the Grand River, 

 is Mohawk Island, where Dr. Macallum says this gull used in former 

 years to breed regularly along with Forster's and the Common Tern. 

 It is still seen there in small numbers during the summer, but of late 

 the "boys" have got into the habit of visiting the island on Sundays 

 during the nesting time, bringing away large quantities of eggs, so 



