CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 39 



Ola. American Herring Gull. 



Lams argentatus smitksonianus Coues. 1873. 



This species is the most widely diffused of all our gulls and is 

 as much at home breeding in the far inland lakes as along the 

 coast of the Atlantic, around Hudson Bay, along the shores of 

 the Arctic seas or on the Upper Yukon. 



We. have records of its breeding in Newfoundland, Labrador, 

 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, 

 throughout the whole prairie region and north to Hudson Bay and 

 the Arctic sea, and across the Rocky Mountains to the Upper 

 Yukon, where Dall found it breeding in numbers. Fannin 

 reports it breeding on the coast of British Columbia and also in 

 the interior. 



Breeding Notes. — Breeding in large numbers on an island in 

 Crane Lake, Assa., between June gth-iSth, 1894. Nest, a shal- 

 low hole in the ground lined with dry grass and weeds. Eggs, 

 three as a rule ; never more. A number of the young were 

 hatched by June 9th, but the greater number about the 18th, 

 when many young were running about the island, and some took 

 to the water and swam away. {Macoun.) 



The men on Crane Lake Farm said that the old birds killed 

 gophers {Spermophilus Richardsorn) and fed them to their young. 

 {Spreadborough.) This species breeds in numbers at Buffalo Lake, 

 Alberta. (^Dippie.) 



I found this species breeding abundantly at Shoal Lake, Mani- 

 toba, on June i8th, 1894. The nests were built on the ground on 

 the islands, were composed of weeds, and contained three eggs 

 each. (Raine.') 



The American Herring Gull is a common species along the 

 St. Lawrence. A few years ago it used to breed on Pigeon Island 

 and the Lower Ducks, Lake Ontario, but owing to constant dis- 

 turbance it no longer breeds in those places, and I doubt if any 

 now nest around Lake Ontario. It is still plentiful in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Parry Sound, Lake Huron, and on other lakes in 

 Northern Ontario. {Rev. C.J. Young.) 



This gull breeds on the small islands off the coast of Bruce 

 Co., Ont., in the Georgian Bay and off Manitoulin Island. Nest 

 in a dry situation. The fishermen take the eggs for food in con- 

 siderable quantities. I have one egg taken by them which is of 



