

LAUGHING GULL. 561 



phenomenon took place immediately; and great is the 

 wheeling and screaming of the expectant birds when the 

 first cargo of the remnants of the feast appear."" 



The bill is red ; the irides very dark, almost black ; 

 head and upper part of neck all round dark lead-grey ; 

 lower part of the neck pure white ; back and wings grey- 

 ish-blue, the secondaries largely, and the primaries slightly 

 tipped with white. Mr. Audubon mentions that the first 

 primary is black, with a tinge of grey on the inner web at 

 the base ; the second and third similar, with the grey more 

 extended ; on the fourth the grey is spread over two- 

 thirds ; the fifth is black only for an inch and a half ; and 

 on the sixth the black is reduced to two spots near the 

 end ; the other parts, and the rest of the primaries, of the 

 same colour as the back : rump, upper tail-coverts and tail- 

 feathers white ; neck in front, breast, and under surface of 

 the body white, tinged with pale red ; under tail-coverts and 

 tail-feathers white; legs and feet red. The whole length 

 seventeen inches ; from the point of the wing to the end of 

 the first quill-feather, which is the longest, twelve inches 

 and three-quarters. Females are rather smaller than 

 males, and have the head of slate-grey, rather than lead- 

 grey. The winter-plumage of this species was first de- 

 scribed from a bird taken at Trieste, in the winter of 1829. 

 Forehead white, some small greyish feathers around the 

 beak ; four spots about the eye ; upper part of the 

 plumage silvery grey; small wing-coverts dusky brown, 

 the larger coverts tipped with white ; first wing-primary 

 uniform brown ; the next five also brown, but each with 

 one white spot ; from the sixth to the tenth the shafts are 

 brown, the webs white ; outer tail-feather on each side 

 white, the others with a broad terminal band of brown ; 

 under surface of the body silvery white. 



VOL. in. o o 



