LAUGHING GULL 
58. Larus atricilla. 16 in. 
Largest of the black-headed gulls. Bill and feet car- 
mine-red; primaries wholly black or only with slight 
white tips; eye brown; in breeding season, with the 
underparts tinged with pinkish. In winter, without the 
black hood, the head being tinged with grayish, and the 
bill and feet dusky. Young birds are like winter adults 
with the back more or less mixed with brownish and 
\ the tail crossed by a black band. The most southerly 
, distributed of our eastern gulls, its northern breeding 
place being on the southern shore of Mass. 
Notes.—Strange cackling laughter; hence their name. 
Nest.—Heaps of rubbish and weeds on the ground in 
wet marshes. The 3 to 5 eggs are gray or olive-gray 
with black spots (2.25 x 1.60). 
Range.—Breeds from the Gulf of Mexico north to 
Mass., and in the interior to Ohio, but most abundantly 
on the South Atlantie coast. Winters from the Caro- 
linas to Northern South America. 
