160 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL, MUSEUM. 



Nature blushes, filling the bird's breast with amorous imagery, till the feathers 

 catch a glow and reflect the blush. Burning with inward fire, the whole frame 

 thrills with the enthusiasm of sexual vigor. The dark glittering eye is 

 encircled with a fiery ring; now it flashes defiance at a rival, now tenderly 

 melts at sight of his mate, soon to be sacrificed to masculine zeal. The breath 

 of desire seems to influence the mouth till it shares the carmine hue that tinges 

 other parts. The birds speed on high with vigorous pinion, making haste to 

 the wedding with joyful cries till the shores resound. But such ardor is too 

 consuming to last; with the touch of a moment the life current flies like an 

 electric shock, lighting a fire in another organism, only to be subdued in the 

 travail of maternity ; not only once, but often, till the tide ebbs that at its 

 flood transfigured the bird. Its force all spent the change comes; the red 

 mouth pales again; the glowing plumage fades to white; the bird is but the 

 shadow of his former self, dull-colored, ragged, without ambition beyond the 

 satisfaction of a gluttonous appetite. He loiters southward, recruiting an 

 enervated frame with plenteous fare in this season of idleness, till the warm 

 rays of another spring restore him. 



Food. — The food of the laughing giiU is quite varied. It consists 

 largely of small fish or fry which it catches for itself on the surface 

 or steals from the brown pelican. This latter performance is quite 

 interesting. Wherever a number of pelicans are diving and feeding 

 these gulls are apt to gather in large numbers, and with their warn- 

 ing cries of " 7mZ/, half., half^'' to share in the feast. As soon as a 

 pelican appears above the surface with a pouch full of small fry 

 one or another of the gulls attempts and often succeeds in alighting 

 on the pelican's head and helping itself to the bountiful supply in the 

 capacious pouch. Other gulls hover about and pick up the pieces 

 that fall to the water. Audubon (1840) states that they eat the eggs 

 and sometimes the small young of the noddies and sooty terns on 

 the Dry Tortugas. I have seen some evidence of their egg-eating 

 habits, but I think they are not nearly as bad in this respect as the 

 larger gulls. Mr. Stanley C. Arthur writes me : 



The laughing gull takes a heavy toll of the eggs of the Cabot and royal terns 

 every year; of this there is no doubt; and it seems to favor the royal tern in 

 this matter of egg breaking. While I have seen a number of Cabot tern eggs 

 broken open by laughing gulls, there is no doubt that the royal tern suffers 

 the most. 



Mr. John G. Wells (1902) says: 



As these gulls can not dive they have to depend for their food on the shoals 

 of sprats and fry that come up to the surface, and they have been known to 

 take large bites from tlie backs of a fish called corvally which swims near 

 the surface in large numbers. After heavy falls of rain, when the pastures 

 are covered with numerous rain pools, these gulls resort to them in numbers and 

 feed on the earthworms which swarm in the pools. This may often be seen, 

 especially in the Beausejour pasture. 



Although not such scavengers as the larger gulls, the laughing 

 gulls are not above eating quite a variety of garbage, and I have 

 known them to follow our boat for lone: distances, while we were 



