BONAPARTE’S GULL. 
15 
other, with a brown head, was a female. On the 12th of November, 1820, 1 
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, follow- 
ing 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, 1833, 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 
