BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 19 



end with a blackish-brown band, between which and the base 

 it is greenish-yellow; tarsi and feet greenish- yellow. 



Length, 20; wing, 15; tail, 6; bill, 1.63; tarsus, 2. 



Habitat, North America. 



LARUS ATRICILLA L. (58 ) 

 LAUGHING GULL. 



The Mississippi River valley is a great thoroughfare of mi- 

 grating birds, some of which pass directly over its sources to- 

 ward Hudson Bay and still more northern regions. But all mi- 

 grants must occasionally rest their weary wings, and replenish 

 their empty stomachs, in doing which they leave a local record 

 for the vigilant observer. The present species is one of this 

 class, having been seen and obtained only in migration in the 

 autumn, and nothing more has come within my personal knowl- 

 edge of its local habits. 



Years have sometimes passed without my having seen or 

 heard of them, and then again several will be reported, and I 

 may find one in the hands of the taxidermist, whose shelves 

 have contained one or two of them from time to time, ever 

 since I have resided within the State. Rumors have reached 

 me occasionally in years gone by. that their eggs have been ob- 

 tained in Cass county, but lacked assurance of their reliability; 

 but more recently I have received a communication from a 

 lady which makes it presumptively possible that the observa 

 tion is correct. She says, in speaking of a nest found, that the 

 eggs were three in number; ovoidal; grayish-green or drab; 

 blotched and spotted several shades of brown and purple; and 

 measured 2.30 by 1.65 inches.* I am not an expert in larine 

 oology, so that the coloration of the eggs has less value to my 

 presumption that the measures, which certainly correspond 

 with those given by the authorities. I believe we shall find it 

 does breed here. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Head and upper part of neck blackish lead gray, extending 

 lower in front; upper and lower eyelids white posteriorly; 

 lower part of neck, entire under plumage, rump, and tail, pure 

 white; back and wings grayish lead color; the first six primar- 

 ies are black, beginning on the first about two thirds of its 

 length from the point, and regularly becoming less on the 

 others, until on the sixth, it is reduced to two spots near the 

 end; tips in some specimens white and in others black to their 



* Letter from Miss Loveland, 1880. 



