LAUGHING GULL. 45 



long ; the tail is almost even, it consists of twelve feathers, and its 

 coverts reach within an inch and a half of its tip ; the wings extend 

 two inches beyond the tail ; a delicate blush is perceivable on the breast 

 and bellj. Length of tarsus two inches. 



The head of the female is of a dark dusky slate color, in other re- 

 spects she resembles the male. 



In some individuals, the crown is of a dusky gray ; the upper part and 

 sides of the neck of a lead color ; the bill and legs of a dirty, dark, pur- 

 plish brown. Others have not the white spots above and below the 

 eyes ; these are young birds. 



The changes of plumage, to which birds of this genus are subject, 

 have tended not a little to confound the naturalist ; and a considerable 

 collision of opinion, arising from an imperfect acquaintance with the 

 living subjects, has been the result. To investigate thoroughly their 

 history, it is obviously necessary that the ornithologist should frequently 

 explore their native haunts ; and to determine the species of periodical 

 or occasional visitors, an accurate comparative examination of many 

 specimens, either alive, or recently killed, is indispensable. Less con- 

 fusion would arise among authors, if they would occasionally abandon 

 their accustomed walks — their studies and their museums, and seek cor- 

 rect knowledge in the only place where it is to be obtained — in the 

 grand Temple of Nature. As it respects, in particular, the tribe under 

 review, the zealous inquirer would find himself amply compensated for 

 all his toil, by observing these neat and clean birds coursing along the 

 rivers and coast, enlivening the prospect by their airy movements : now 

 skimming closely over the watery element, watching the motions of the 

 surges, and now rising into the higher regions, sporting with the winds ; 

 while he inhaled the invigorating breezes of the ocean, and listened to 

 the soothing murmurs of its billows. 



The Laughing Gull, known in America by the name of the Black- 

 headed Gull, is one of the most beautiful and most sociable of its genus. 

 They make their appearance, on the coast of New Jersey, in the latter 

 part of April ; and do not fail to give notice of their arrival, by their 

 familiarity and loquacity. The inhabitants treat them with the same 

 indifference that they manifest towards all those harmless birds, which 

 do not minister either to their appetite or their avarice ; and hence the 

 Black-heads may be seen in companies around the farm-house ; coursing 

 along the river shores, gleaning up the refuse of the fishermen, and the 

 animal substances left by the tide ; or scattered over the marshes, and 

 newly-ploughed fields, regaling on the worms, insects and their larvrc, 

 which, in the vernal season, the bounty of Nature providies for the sus- 

 tenance of myriads of the feathered race. 



On the Jersey side of the Delaware Bay, in the neighborhood of Fish- 



