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 (2.25x1.60). 



Range. Breeds from the Gulf of Mexico north to 

 Mass., and in the interior to Ohio, but most abundantly 

 on the South Atlantic coast. Winters from the Caro- 

 linas to Northern South America. 



