LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 179 



the lake beach to the marshes for feeding grounds, possibly because small fish 

 are more numerous there. On the occasions when the pent-up swamp waters at 

 Rye Beach have broken through into the lake carrying all sorts of debris upon 

 their floods, these gulls have collected at the place in great numbers, feeding. 



Winter. — Bonaparte's gull also winters to some extent along the 

 whole of both coasts of the United States, though rather rarely north- 

 ward and much more abundantly southward, where it is associated 

 with nearly all of the other common species. At this season it 

 frequents the bays, harbors, and tidal estuaries, where it can find 

 small fry to feed upon. I know of no prettier, winter, seashore 

 scene than a flock of these exquisite little gulls hovering over some 

 favorite feeding place, plunging into the cold gray water, unmindful 

 of the chilly blasts and the swirling snow squalls. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding range. — Known to breed at only a few localities in the 

 timbered regions of the northwest. East in Mackenzie to the Ander- 

 son River, Great Bear Lake (Fort Franklin) and Great Slave Lake 

 (Forts Fae and Resolution) and on Southampton Island. South in 

 British Columbia to the Cariboo District (Quesnelle Lake) . West in 

 Alaska nearly to the northwest coast (Nulato and Kowak River). 

 North to the limit of trees. Adults, in breeding plumage, occur 

 in summer more or less regularly as far south as the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence (Cape Breton and Magdalen Islands), some of the Great 

 Lakes (Lake Michigan), ana Saskatchewan (Quill Lake), which 

 suggests that they probably breed far south and east of the known 

 breeding places. 



Winter range. — On the Atlantic coast regularly from South Caro- 

 lina southward, more rarely farther north, straggling as far north 

 as Maine. Frequently in Bermuda. On the Gulf coast from Ala- 

 bama and Louisiana southward to Yucatan (Progreso). On the 

 Pacific coast from Washington (Gray's Harbor) southward as far 

 as central Mexico (Jalisco), rarely to Peru. 



Spring migration. — Northwestward from the Atlantic coast to 

 the interior. Early dates of arrival : Pennsylvania, Erie, April 13 ; 

 New York, April 21 ; Prince Edward Island, May 10 ; Quebec, 

 Godbout, April 27. Late dates of departure: Florida, Coronado, 

 April 9 ; South Carolina, Charleston, May 15 ; District of Cblumbia, 

 May 30; Pennsylvania, Erie, May 25; New York, June 14; Massa- 

 chusetts, June 9. Dates for the interior: Louisiana, New Orleans 

 (latest), March 25; Kansas (average), April 21; Michigan, Ann 

 Arbor (average), April 19; Manitoba (average), April 24; Macken- 

 zie, Fort Resolution (average arrival), May 14, and Fort Simpson, 



