292 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
with dusky; bill and feet darker red, bill tipped with orange-reddish. Young in first 
winter plumage: Forehead and underparts white, rest of head and back brownish, 
feathers edged with lighter; quills dusky, tipped with white; tail pale gray or white, 
with broad subterminal blackish band. 
Comparisons. —The small size together with wing pattern distinguish this gull 
in all plumages, and in the adult the basal gray of the two central tail feathers is 
unique. 
Range. —Breeds on “mid-continental lakes” in the prairie regions of the northern 
interior, from Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba south to South Dakota and 
Minnesota; winters sparingly on Gulf coast and west coast of Mexico, but mainly 
from Peru and Chile to Argentina. Recorded from Ontario and New Brunswick. 
State Records. —Franklin Gulls were found to be fairly common at Lake Bur- 
ford during the spring migration of 1918—15-20 immature birds, molting into adult 
plumage, were seen June 11; about 20 more, June 13; and a flock of about 30 in full 
adult plumage June 14-16 (Wetmore). 
Nest. —On broken-down rushes in shallow water, on bottom or afloat; made 
largely of grasses and rushes. Eggs: Usually 3, variable in size, shape, and color, 
buffy and greenish with brown and lavender markings. 
General Habits. —The Franklin Gulls are the familiar destroyers 
of insect pests in the northern interior, seen following the gang plows 
on the prairie, resting massed on points and sandbars along the shores 
of lakes, gathered in breeding colonies in tule marshes, and in migration 
maneuvering high in the sky. 
A phenomenal concentration of gulls due to heavy rains, occurred 
in August, 1927, on the Cheyenne bottoms in Kansas. As the result, 
it is reported, there was a corresponding disappearance of grasshoppers 
and cut-worms on an area fifty miles in extent. 
On the coast of Peru in winter, Doctor Murphy found the Franklin 
“an enormously abundant tourist from interior North America” 
(1925, p. 284). 
Additional Literature.—Bent, A. C., U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 113, 163-175, 
1921— Dwight, Jonathan, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. LII, Art. Ill, 288- 
293, 1925.— Job, H. K., Educational Leaflet 44, Nat. Assoc. Audubon Soc.; Bird- 
Lore XII, 124-127, 1910; Among the Water Fowl, 159-166, 1902.— Leopold, N. F., 
Jr., Auk, XL, 409-414,1923 (change of migration route).— Miller, Olive Thorne, 
A Bird-Lover in the West, 211-216, 1894.— Roberts, T. S., Auk, XVII, 272-283, 
1900 (nesting).— Taverner, P. A., Birds of Western Canada, 58-60, 1926. 
HEERMANN GULL: Larus heermanni Cassin 
Description — Length: 17.5-21 inches, wing 13.5, bill 1.5. Adults in summer 
plumage: Head white; underparts gray; back grayish brown, wing quills black, all but 
two or three outer ones tipped with white; tail black, narrowly tipped with white; 
iris yellowish, eye ring red; bill mainly or wholly bright red , legs and feet black Adults 
in winter plumage: Similar to summer adults but head and upper neck grayish brown 
instead of white. Young in juvenal plumage: Entire plumage sooty brown, lighter 
below; wing and tail coverts tipped with grayish white; bill brown and black; legs and 
feet brownish black. 
