The Franklin Gull 



minal band of darker red; iris dark brown; naked orbital ring, legs, and feet, deep red. 

 Adults in winter: Similar to summer adults but head and whole neck white, the occipi- 

 tal, auricular, and orbital regions dusky grayish; bill and feet darker red, the former 

 tipped with orange-reddish. Young: Pileum and sides of head (except forehead and 

 lores), back and scapulars grayish brown, the longer scapulars margined terminally 

 with pale grayish buff; wing-coverts gray, more or less tinged with brown; secondaries 

 dusky edged with pale gray and broadly tipped with white; primaries dusky, the prox- 

 imal ones more grayish, all rather broadly tipped with white; tail pale gray or grayish 

 white with a broad subterminal band of blackish; central portion of rump pale gray, 

 the lateral and posterior portions, together with upper tail-coverts and entire under 

 parts, lores, forehead, and eyelids white; bill brownish, the tip dusky; legs and feet 

 brownish (in dried skins)." — Ridgway. Length of adult about 355.6 (14.00); wing 

 290 (11.42); tail 104 (4.10); bill 32.5 (1.28); tarsus 41 (1.61). 



Recognition Marks. — Tern size; resemblance to Bonaparte's Gull (C. Phila- 

 delphia) fairly close; red beak (instead of black) distinctive for adult; wing pattern 

 quite different, more like the larger gulls. Immature plumages require expert analysis. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: A bulky platform or truncated 

 pyramid of dead rushes, placed on broken-down rushes, or in shallow water of marsh, 

 often floating. Eggs: 3; "normal gull type," but averaging darker in tone. Av. 

 size 53.85 x 36.8 (2.12 x 1.45). Season: June. 



General Range. — North and South America, breeding from South Dakota and 

 Minnesota north to Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. South in winter from 

 Gulf coast of Louisiana and Texas to Peru and Chile. Accidental in California, 

 Utah, Ohio, Ontario, Virginia, and the Lesser Antilles. 



Occurrence in California. — Rare or casual during migrations. Immature 

 birds taken at Hyperion, Nov. 22, 1913; Oct. 17, 1914; and Nov. 24, 1914, by J. Eugene 

 Law; Oct. 29, 1917, by L. E. Wyman. 



Authorities. — Law (Larus franklini). Condor, vol. xvii., 1915, p. 96; Wyman, 

 Condor, vol. xx., p. 192. 



OUR KNOWLEDGE of this gull as a bird of California is based 

 solely on fall specimens taken by Messrs. Law and Wyman at Sewer 

 Mouth, alias Hyperion, in Los Angeles County. Franklin's Gull is 

 essentially a bird of the northern interior, breeding in the Dakotas, 

 Manitoba, and Saskatchewan ; and it usually finds its way down the 

 Mississippi Valley in the autumn, and so via Mexico to the coast of Peru. 

 The four specimens taken were all immatures of the first year, and their 

 discrimination from the attendant swarms of Bonaparte Gulls was an 

 astute piece of work on the part of two of California's most prominent 

 ornithologists. Hyperion has become a recognized port of call for all 

 migrating Laridce, but it remains to be seen whether C. franklini is a 

 regular visitant. 



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