THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 55 



58 Larus atricilla Linnaeus. 

 Laughing Gull, Black-headed Gull. 



Adults. Length, 15-17. Wing, 13. Lower back and wings, plumbeous slate; 

 primaries, black, inner ones tipped with white ; head, sooty slate color ; rest 

 of plumage, including upper back and neck, white, with more or less of a rosy 

 tint or flush ; bill and feet, dark red. 



Winter adults. Head, white, mottled with dusky on nape and ear-coverts, 

 and a gray wash on the breast. 



Young in first winter. Dusky grayish-brown above edged with buff ; tail, 

 gray, broadly tipped with black ; rump, white ; under parts, white, except the 

 breast, which is sooty. 



Nest on the salt marshes in grass ; made of grass, sea weed, etc. ; eggs, three 

 to five, olive brown or olive gray spotted with brown and lilac, 2.25 x 1.60. 



The Laughing Gulls select islands in the salt meadows or grass} 7 

 patches where the water is never very deep, and here, just above high- 

 water mark, their bulky nests of grass, sea weed, etc., are placed. As 

 we approach a colony, the few birds that are always flying about are 

 joined by others that have been sitting on the nests, until, as we land, 

 the whole air is full of flapping wings and the harsh, unearthly laugh- 

 ing cries of the birds as they circle about us, driven to desperation at 

 the danger of their eggs or young. 



We have no handsomer bird on our coasts than this beautiful gray 

 and white Gull, with its slaty hood and faint flush of pink on its 

 breast, which seems to leave the feathers soon after the bird has been 

 killed. 



Formerly an abundant summer resident on the salt meadows along 

 the coast; it is now restricted to two colonies, one at Brigantine and 

 the other on Gull Island, Hereford Inlet, both under the protection of 

 the National Association of Audubon Societies. The birds arrive 

 April 4th to 20th, and have mostly departed by October 1st. The first 

 sets of eggs are laid in May. 



In late summer they are often found in immense flocks on lower 

 Delaware Bay, and in spring and fall occasional individuals come up 

 to Philadelphia or further. Two were taken opposite Bristol October 

 23d, 1895 ; one at Fish House, autumn, 1901, and another on Timber 

 Creek, November 7th, 1896. 



In the colony at Brigantine, Mr. I. N. DeHaven and I found a few 

 birds (apparently barren) in immature plumage with the breeding 



