52 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



County Records. — Cumberland ; quite a common summer resident, breeding 

 on the outer islands of Casco Bay, (Brown, C. B. P., p. 34). (They have long 

 ago ceased to breed there). Knox ; summer, (Rackliff) ; I took an egg in the 

 county in 1896, (Norton). Lincoln; about fourteen birds breeding in June, 

 1895, (Norton). Washington; a few about the islands in summer, (Board- 

 man). 



Though formerly breeding on the various islands along the 

 coast, the status of the Laughing Gull in Maine is now some- 

 what changed. Mr. Norton states (Auk, 1904, p. 149) that 

 Metinic Green Island was in June 1903, the home of the only 

 breeding colony of Laughing Gulls known in Maine. Eight 

 were seen at one time and three of their nests found containing 

 eggs. It seems likely as they are now protected that their 

 present status is similar to that in 1903. The birds nest in 

 colonies, only a few together, in the northern part of their range 

 (probably from necessity not from choice) but by the hundred 

 in southern waters, placing their nests on the ground among 

 tussocks of grass on sandy islands. The eggs are usually three 

 but often four or five in number. They are olive brown or 

 greenish gray in color, spotted with chocolate, brown, umber 

 and lilac, and in fact showing a great variation in color, and 

 markings as may be expected among the Gulls. Three eggs 

 taken from a nest of drifted seaweed along the edge of a salt 

 marsh, Chincoteague, Virginia, June 1, 1888, measure 2.02 x 

 1.53, 2.10 X 1.60, 1.99 x 1.55. The cry of the birds when 

 excited sounds like peals of prolonged and boisterous laughter, 

 "ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-hah". The few individuals summering on 

 the Maine coast arrive from the south in late April and are 



gone by September. 



t 



60. Larus Philadelphia (Ord). Bonaparte's Gull. 

 Plumage in summer adults : wings and back pearl gray ; head and throat 

 sooty slate ; outer three primaries white except the outer web of the first 

 and the terminal portion of the other two which is black ; other primaries 

 pearl gray, white tipped, and the fifth and sixth with black space next the 

 terminal white ; otherwise white ; feet red ; bill black. Plumage in winter 

 adults : differs as follows ; head and throat white ; back of head and ear 



