LAUGHING GULL. 577 



the head, the others were mottled all over with brown. 

 One of them was shot ; but, although the remaining foup 

 continued to resort to the same place for some time, the 

 old ones were too shy to be procured. We also saw two 

 others near Hastings in Sussex. They may be easily 

 known from the Black-headed Gull, even when flying ; the 

 flight is different ; the bird appears much larger, and the 

 tail shorter in proportion." No other examples, taken in 

 this country, have been recorded, that I am aware of ; but 

 Mr. Gould mentions that the preservation of Montagu's 

 specimen in the British Museum has afforded him the 

 means of determining that it is identical with the Ame- 

 rican bird. It visits Bermuda. 



The following account of the habits of this Gull in the 

 United States, is derived from the Ornithological Bio- 

 graphy of Mr. Audubon : 



" This species breeds, according to the latitude, from the 

 1st of March to the middle of June ; and I have thought 

 that, on the Tortuga Keys, it produced two broods each 

 season. In New Jersey, and farther to the eastward, the 

 nest resembles that of the Ring-billed Gull, or Common 

 American Gull, Larus zonorhyncus, being formed of dried 

 sea-weeds, and land plants, two and sometimes three 

 inches high, with a regular rounded cavity, from four and 

 a half to five inches in diameter, and an inch and a half in 

 depth. This cavity is formed of finer grasses, placed in a 

 pretty regular circular form. I once found a nest formed as 

 it were of two ; that is to say, two pairs had formed a nest of 

 nearly double the ordinary size, and the two birds sat close 

 to each other during rainy weather, but separately, each on 

 its own three eggs. I observed that the males, as well as 

 the females, thus concerned in this new sort of partnership, 

 evinced as much mutual fondness as if they were brothers. 

 On the Tortugas, where these Gulls also breed in abund- 



VOL. III. P P 



