BLACK-HEADED GULL 215 
In spring these Gulls come about the farms to 
follow the plough, filling the new-made furrows 
from end to end, hovering in a cloud over the plough- 
man’s head and following at his heels, a screaming, 
fighting multitude. Wilson’s expression in describing 
a northern species, that its cry “ is like the excessive 
laugh of a negro,” is also descriptive of the language 
of our bird. Its peculiar cry is lengthened at will 
and inflected a hundred ways, and interspersed 
with numerous short notes like excited exclamations. 
After feeding they always fly to the nearest water to 
drink and bathe their feathers, after which they 
retire to some open spot in the neighbourhood where 
there is a carpet of short grass. They invariably sit 
close together with their bills toward the wind, and 
the observer will watch the flock in vain to see one 
bird out of this beautiful order. They do not stand 
up to fly, but rise directly from a sitting posture. 
Usually the wings are flapped twice or thrice before 
the body is raised from the ground. 
In some seasons in August and September, after 
a period of warm, wet weather, the larve of the large 
horned beetle rise to the surface, throwing up little 
mounds of earth as moles do; often they are so 
numerous as to give the plains, where the grass has 
been very closely cropped, the appearance of being 
covered with mud. These insects afford a rich harvest 
to the Spur-winged Lapwing (Vanellus cayennensis), 
which in such seasons of plenty are to be seen all 
day diligently running about, probing and dis- 
lodging them from beneath the fresh hillocks. The 
