132 BONAPARTE'S GULL. 



other, with a brown head, was a female. On the 12th of November, 1820, I 

 shot one a few miles below the mouth of the Arkansas, on the Mississippi, 

 which corresponded in all respects with the male just mentioned. 



No sooner do the shad and old-wives enter the bays and rivers of our 

 Middle Districts, than this Gull begins to shew itself on the coast, following 

 these fishes as if dependent upon them for support, which however is not the 

 case, for at the time when these inhabitants of the deep deposit their spawn 

 in our waters, the Gull has advanced beyond the eastern limits of the United 

 States. However, after the first of April, thousands of Bonapartian Gulls 

 are seen gambolling over the waters of Chesapeake Bay, and proceeding 

 eastward, keeping pace with the shoals of fishes. 



During my stay at Eastport in Maine, in May 1S33, these Gulls were to 

 be seen in vast numbers in the harbour of Passamaquody at high water, and 

 in equal quantities at low water on all the sand and mud-bars in the neigh- 

 bourhood. They were extremely gentle, scarcely heeded us, and flew around 

 our boats so close that any number might have been procured. My son 

 John shot seventeen of them at a single discharge of his double-barrelled 

 gun, but all of them proved to be young birds of the preceding year. On 

 examining these specimens, we found no development of the ovaries in 

 several, which, from their smaller size, we supposed to be females, nor any 

 enlargement of the testes in the males; and as these young birds kept apart 

 from those which had brown and black hoods, I concluded that they would 

 not breed until the following spring. Their stomachs were filled with 

 coleopterous insects, which they caught on the wing, or picked up from the 

 water, into which they fell in great numbers when overtaken by a cold fog, 

 while attempting to cross the bay. On the 24th of August, 1831, when at 

 Eastport with my family, I shot ten of these Gulls. The adult birds had 

 already lost their dark hood, and the young were in fine plumage. In the 

 stomach of all were shrimps, very small fishes, and fat substances. The old 

 birds were still in pairs. 



When exploring the Bay of Fundy, in May 1833, I was assured by the 

 captain and sailors, as well as the intelligent pilot of the revenue tender 

 Nancy, that this Gull bred in great abundance on the islands off Grand 

 Manan; but unfortunately I was unable to certify the fact, as I set out for 

 Labrador previous to the time at which they breed in that part of the 

 country. None of them were observed on any part of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence, or on the coast of Labrador or Newfoundland. In winter this 

 species is common in the harbour of Charleston, but none are seen at that 

 season near the mouths of the Mississippi. 



The flight of this Gull is light, elevated, and rapid, resembling in buoyancy 

 that of some of our Terns more than that of most of our Gulls, which move 



