Gulls 



being white mixed with blackish. Under parts white with- 

 out a tinge of rose. Bill and feet duller. 



Young Light ashy brown feathers, margined with whitish on 

 the upper parts ; forehead and under parts white, sometimes 

 clouded with dark gray ; tail dark pearl gray with broad 

 band of blackish brown across end ; primaries black. 



Range 11 Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, north 

 to Maine and Nova Scotia ; south in winter through West 

 Indies, Mexico (both coasts), Central America, and northern 

 South America (Atlantic side), to the Lower Amazon." 

 A. O. U. 



Season Summer resident, and visitor throughout the year. 



No bird that must lift up its voice to drown the howlings of 

 the gale and the pounding, dashing surf in an ocean storm 

 might be expected to have a soft, musical call; and the gulls, that 

 pass the greater part of their lives at sea, must therefore depend 

 upon squalls, screams, barks, and shrill, high notes that carry 

 long distances, to report news back and forth to members of the 

 loose flocks that hunt together above the crest of the waves. The 

 laughing gull, however, utters a coarse scream in a clear, high 

 tone, like the syllables oh-hah-hah-ah-ah-hah-hah-h-a-a-a-a-ah, 

 long drawn out toward the end and particularly at the last meas- 

 ure, that differs from every other bird note, "sounding like the 

 odd and excited laughter of an Indian squaw," says Langille, "and 

 giving marked propriety to the name of the bird." All gulls chat- 

 ter among themselves, the noise rising sometimes to a deafening 

 clamor when they are disturbed in their nesting grounds; but 

 the laughing gull, in addition to its long-drawn, clear note on a 

 high key, " sounding not unlike the more excited call-note of the 

 domestic goose," suddenly bursts out, to the ears of superstitious 

 sailors, into the laugh that seems malign and uncanny. 



A more southern species than any commonly seen off our 

 shores, the laughing gull nests from Texas and Florida to 

 Maine, though it is not a bird of the interior, as the ring-billed 

 species is, nor so pelagic as the herring gull. It delights in reedy, 

 bush-grown salt marshes that yield a rich menu of small mol- 

 lusks, spawn of the king crab and other crustaceans, insects, 

 worms, and refuse cast up by the tide. In such a place it also 

 nests in large colonies, forming with its body a slight depression 

 in the sand that is scantily lined with grasses and weeds from 

 the beach, and concealed by a tussock of grasses. Three to five 



43 



