606 LARID^E. 



1884, p. 86). During the first fortnight of March, 1882, 

 about a score frequented the Bay of St. Jean-de-Luz, in the 

 extreme south of the Bay of Biscay ; and the Editor con- 

 siders it prohahle that they were on their way to some 

 breeding-grounds on the low coast between that place and 

 Bordeaux, inasmuch as the species is known to be a regular 

 visitor to the Gironde. Stragglers are said to have occurred 

 in Central Germany ; on the Lake of Constance ; and on 

 the Rhine near Mainz. 



THE LAUGHING GULL, Larus atricilla t Linnaeus, is an 

 American species, which appears to have been admitted into 

 the British List owing to a misapprehension on the part of 

 Montagu, and of his contemporaries. The American bird 

 is larger and stouter than our L. ridibundus, and has a 

 darker mantle, but the main characteristic by which it may 

 be distinguished from every other Gull of its size (except 

 two tropical species from the Red Sea and vicinity), con- 

 sists in the three outer primaries, which are black with 

 minute white tips. This is the true Laughing Gull, which 

 Linnaeus described from Catesby's History of Carolina by 

 the name of L. atricilla. As regards the bird which 

 Montagu called the Laughing Gull in his Ornithological 

 Dictionary, the following description seems to show that he 

 could not have been acquainted with the American bird and 

 its specific distinctions. He says : "This species is larger 

 than the Black-headed Gull ; length eighteen inches. It 

 differs from that bird only in the legs, which are black; 

 the bill is however stronger, and the head larger." He 

 continues : "In the month of August, 1774, we saw five 

 of them together feeding in a pool in the shingley flats 

 near Winchelsea ; two only were black on the head, the 

 others were mottled all over with brown. One of them was 

 shot ; but, although the remaining four 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 



