FRANKLIN GULL
59. Larus franklini. 15 in.
Adult in summer.—Hood dark; mantle lighter than the last species; primaries gray with black ends broadly tipped with white; underparts rosy; bill and feet red, the former dark toward the tip, and more slender than that of the [Laughing Gull]. In winter, the plumage changes the same as that of the last but the color of the primaries and the shape of the bill will always identify this species. These gulls are strictly birds of the interior, nesting on low marshy islands in ponds or sloughs, often in company with grebes, upon whose eggs they subsist to a great extent.
Notes.—Similar to those of the last species.
Nest.—A mass of weeds, etc., on the ground in marshes, often partly floating in the water. The eggs are similar to those of the [Laughing Gull] but the markings are usually in the form of zigzag lines as well as spots (2.25 × 1.60).
Range.—Interior of North America, breeding from Iowa and the Dakotas north to Middle Canada; winters from the Gulf States southward.
