160 
GULLS 
The resemblance of its call to wild, maniacal laughter has won 
for this species its common name. 
1895. Mackay, G. H., Auk, X, 332-336 (habits in Mass.). 
59. Lams franklini Rich. Franklin’s Gull. Ads. in summer. — 
Whole head and throat sooty black, nape, sides of neck, and underparts, 
except throat, white, generally suffused (in fresh specimens) with an exquis- 
ite peach-blossom tint; tail white; back and wings pearl-gray; first primary 
white, outer web black, except at the tip, shaft part of the inner web grayish 
on basal half (Fig. 78, d) ; second primary white, with a black mark on inner 
web and a black stripe on outer web near the tip, rest of outer web and shaft 
part of inner web pearl-gray; third to sixth primaries tipped with white, 
then banded with gradually diminishing bars of black, which are succeeded 
by a whitish space, while the rest of the feather is pearl-gray; bill dark 
coral-red. Ads. in winter. — “Similar, but head and neck white, the occiput, 
with orbital and auricular regions, grayish dusky; bill and feet dusky, the 
former tipped with orange reddish.” Young, first plumage. — “Top and 
sides of the head (except forehead and lores), back and scapulars grayish 
brown, the longer scapulars bordered terminally with pale grayish buff; 
wing-coverts bluish gray tinged with grayish brown; secondaries dusky, 
edged with pale grayish blue and broadly tipped with white; primaries 
dusky, the inner more plumbeous, all broadly tipped with white. Central 
portion of the rump uniform light bluish gray; lateral and posterior portions 
of the rump, upper tail-coverts, entire lower parts, forehead, lores, and 
eyelids white. Bill brownish, dusky terminally; feet brown (in skin).” W., 
11*25; B., 1*30; depth through nostrils, *35; Tar., 1*60 (B., B., and R.). 
Range. — Interior N. Am. Breeds from sw. Sask. and sw. Keewatin to 
S. D., Iowa, and s. Minn.; winters from Gulf coast of La. and Tex. to 
Peru and Chile. ; accidental in Utah, Ont., Ohio, Va., and the Lesser Antilles. 
Nest , of grasses, etc., in reedy marshes. Eggs, 2-3, varying from dark 
chocolate to creamy brown and sooty white, irregularly marked with small 
spots or large blotches of umber, and with obsolete lilac shell markings, 
2*12 x 1*40 (Preston). Date , Heron Lake, Minn., May 8. 
Many Gulls nest in the interior, but of them all Franklin’s has 
rarely been found on either our Atlantic or Pacific coasts, though it 
reaches the seashore in its winter quarters. 
Pausing in its billowy flight over the prairies to circle about one 
curiously; hovering over the plowman, or exploring the furrow in his 
wake; eagerly chasing grasshoppers, like a flock of pearl-plumaged 
hens; gathered in thousands in the reeds where it nests or in vast 
flocks prior to its fall migration, Franklin’s Gull is one of the most 
interesting, as it is unexpected, forms of bird-life of our interior. 
1886. Preston, J. W., Orn. and Ool., XI, 54, 55. — 1900. Roberts, 
T. S., Auk, XVII, 272-283 (one of the first as well as one of the best of 
American bird studies with a camera). — 1902. Job, H. K., Among the 
Water-Fowl, 159-165.— 1910. Ed. Leaflet, No. 44, Natl. Assoc. Aud. Soc., 
Bird-Lore, XII, 124-127. 
60. Laras Philadelphia {Ord). Bonaparte’s Gull. Ads. in summer . 
— Whole head and throat dark, sooty slate-color; nape and sides of the neck, 
underparts, except throat, and tail white; back and wings pearl-gray; first 
primary, seen from above, white, outer web and tip black (Fig. .78, e)\ 
second and third primaries white, tipped with black ; third to sixth primaries 
with Small whitish tips, then large black spaces, the rest of feather white 
or pearl-gray; bill black. Ads. in winter. — Similar, but head and throat white, 
back and sides of head washed with grayish. Im. — Top of the head and 
