GULLS 
229 
Distribution. Temperate and tropical coasts of North America. There are a few 
records for our east coast. 
Figure 334 
Wing of Laughing Gull; scale, 
59. Franklin’s Gull, prairie pigeon, la mouette ou mauve de franklin, 
Icarus pipixcan. L, 14. Plate XXVIII A. 
Practically identical with Bonaparte’s Gull, from which it differs only in detail. 
Distinctions. Central Provinces. To be seriously confused only with Bonaparte's 
Gull, but may be distinguished by its slightly darker mantle and the small amount of 
white on the wings (wrists and most of 
the primaries being slate grey instead 
of pure white) (Figure 335, compare 
with Figure 336). The bill and feet 
vary, with age and season, from black 
to maroon. In Bonaparte’s Gull the 
bill is always black and the feet vary 
from flesh-coloured to coral-red. In 
both species the rosy suffusion of the 
underparts is evanescent and not 
always present in specimens, as it 
quickly fades to white after death and 
exposure to light. The juvenile can 
best be distinguished by the wing 
pattern in which the primaries are solid black in the bird of the year instead of with 
large white areas. 
Field Marks. The blackness of the wings without prominent white wrists makes the 
best field marks for all plumages. The black or deep maroon legs and the dull red bill also 
assist in recognition (Figure 333a). Either Franklin’s or Bonaparte’s Gull may be known 
from the terns which they may resemble in life by the decided wing pattern instead of the 
even pale greyness of those species. 
Nesting. Nest of dead rushes and debris in wet marshes adjoining prairie lakes and 
sloughs. 
Distribution. The interior, from Manitoba to Alberta. Not known to breed north 
of the prairie sections and not recorded from British Columbia. 
This is a characteristic gull of the prairies. Nesting in large colonies 
in the marshy sloughs and lakes, these gulls appear in clouds of thousands 
of individuals and follow the heavy gang ploughs in flocks that almost 
hide the driver and team from view. 
They settle on the freshly turned black earth, packing into their eager 
crops the grubs, worms, and larv® that are scurrying to new shelter after 
the upheaval. One surface quickly exhausted, they rise to air again, beat 
over their companions still busily at work, whirl once or twice about the 
ploughman so closely that he might cut them down with his whip, and settle 
on freshly turned clods again, to repeat the operation over and over. Thus 
it goes from daylight to dark and the destruction carried into the insect 
ranks on these fields preparing for cultivation is enormous and well appre- 
ciated by the husbandman. Later in the season when the green, half- 
Figure 335 
Wing of Franklin’s Gull; scale, 
