f : ¿1251)
B O N A P A R T I A N GULL.
LJRUS BONAPARTU, SWAINS .
PLATE ÓÓCXXIV. MM, FEMALE, AM, TOOTTB.1
MY first acquaintance with. this'spe'rins took place whilst I was at
Cincinnati, ill the beginning tif August 1819. I was crossing the Ohio,
along with Mr ROBERT JÌKST, then curator of the.Cincinnati Museum,
for the purpose of visiting the Cliff Swallows which had t a k g u p their
abode on thV walls of the garrison On the Kentucky side, when we observed
two Gulls sweeping gracefully over the tranquil waters. Now
they wòuld alight side by side, ¡is if intent on holding a close conversati.,
n ; then they would rise on wing and range about,leaking downwards
with sidelong ^ inoe s , searching for smal'l fishes, or perhaps eyeing
the bits of garbage that floated on the surface. We watched them
for nearly l^ìf- an hour, and having learned-something of their manners,
shot one, which happened to be a femaì j g On her dropping, her mate
almost immediately alighted beside her, and was shot. There, side by
side, as in life, so in death,'floated the l,,vely birds. One, having a dark
bluish nearly black head, was found to bo the male ; the other,
brown head, was a female- On the 12th of November 1820, I shot one
» few toiles below the mouth of the Arkansas, on the Mississippi, which
corresponded in all respects with the inai® just mentioned.
No sooner dò tlie shads and oW-wivós" ont.ir tin: bays and rivers of
our Middle Districts, than this Gull begins to s h ewf ^ j f on the coast,
following thesé'fistós às if dependeni-ujitm them for their'import, which
however is not the ease, 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 Stat « However, after the first of
April, thousands of Bonapartian Gulls are seen gambling oyer thè waters
of Chesapeake Bay, and proceeding eastward, keeping pace with
the shoals of fishes.'
D u r i n g m y stay at Eastport in Maine, in May 11.33,. these Gulls
were to be seen in vast numbers in thé harbour of I'assamaquody at
high water, and i i equal quantities at low water on all the sand and
mud-bars in the neighbourhood. They were extremely gentle, scarcely
BONAPARTIAN GULL. 213
heeded us, and. flew around our boats so close that any number might
have been procured. My soil J O HN shot seventeen of them at a single
discharge of his. double-.barrelled gun, butfa§|of them proved to be
•young birds of the preceding year. On éxamiming#£se 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<joung birds kept apart lr,.m those which had brown
and black hoods, li&ncluded that they would not breed until the following
springs.: Their stomachs were tilled with coleopterous imects,
which they .-aught on the wing, or picked up from ,.t(ie.i.'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 wore 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 Hay of Fundy, in May 1833,1 was assured by
the captain ami sailors, as well as the intelligent pilot of the Revenue
Tender, the N.aiiçv, that this Cull lired ill groat abundance, on the
islands off Grand: M arum ; 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 thé ciiuntry. None of them were observed on any
part of the Gulf of St Lawrence, or gj;.thf>..const of Labrador or Newfoundland.
In winter this species is common in the harbour of Charleston,
but none: are seen at that season near $he mouths of the Mississippi.
The flight of this Gull light; elevated, and rapid, resembling in
buoyancy,.that of some of our Terns more than that of most of our
Culls, which move their wings more sedately, I found the adult birds
in moult in August. Although their notes are different from those of
all our other, species, being shriller (and more frequent, I am unable to
represent them intelligibly by words.
Since I began to study the habits of Gi^ls, and observe their changes
of plumage, whether, at the approach of the love season, or in autumn,
I have thought that, the dark tint of their hoods was in the first instance
caused by,the extremities ;of the leathers then gradually changing from
white: to black or brown, without the actual renewal of thé feathers
themselves, as happens in some species of land-birds. At Eastport, I