268 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



now skimming closely over the watery element, watching trie motions 

 of the surges, and now rising into the higher regions, sporting with 

 the winds, while he inhaled the invigorating breezes of the ocean 

 and listened to the soothing murmurs of its billows." 



And of a well-known species, common to the Atlan- 

 tic seaboard and our Eastern river valleys, he says, 



" The Laughing Gull, known in America by the name of the 

 Black-headed Gull, is one of the most beautiful and most sociable 

 of its genus. They make their appearance on the coast of New 

 Jersey in the latter part of April, and do not fail to give notice of 

 their arrival by their familiarity and loquacity. The inhabitants treat 

 them with the same indifference that they manifest towards all those 

 harmless birds which do not minister either to their appetite or their 

 avarice, and hence the Black-heads may be seen in companies around 

 the farm-house, coursing along the river-shores, gleaning up the 

 refuse of the fishermen and the animal substances left by the tide ; or 

 scattered over the marshes and newly-ploughed fields, regaling on 

 the worms, insects, and their larvae, which, in the vernal season, the 

 bounty of Nature provides for the sustenance of myriads of the 

 feathered race. 



" On the Jersey side of the Delaware Bay, in the neighborhood of 

 Fishing Creek, about the middle of May, the Black-headed Gulls 

 assemble in great multitudes, to feed upon the remains of the King- 

 crabs which the hogs have left, or upon the spawn which those 

 curious animals deposit in the sand, and which is scattered along the 

 shore by the waves. At such times, if any one approach to disturb 

 them, the Gulls will rise up in clouds, every individual squalling so 

 loud that the roar may be heard at the distance of two or three 

 miles. 



" It is an interesting spectacle to behold this species when about 

 recommencing their migrations. If the -weather be calm, they will 

 rise up in the air, spirally, chattering all the while to each other in 

 the most sprightly manner, their notes at such times resembling the 

 singing of a hen, but far louder, changing often into a haw, ha ha 

 ha haw ! the last syllable lengthened out like the excessive laugh of 

 a negro. When mounting and mingling together, like motes in the 

 sunbeams, their black heads and wing-tips, and snow-white plumage, 

 give them a very beautiful appearance. After gaining an immense 



