CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 8. NATATORES. 



345 





V-■JS,^ 

 THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GDLL. 



Genus LARUS : Larus. — This includes several species of Gull, a very numerous race, dis- 

 persed along the shores of the ocean in neai'ly all parts of the world. These are exceedingly 

 voracious birds, continually skimming over the surface of the waves in search of their finny prey, 

 and often following the shoals of fish to great distances. They generally congregate in vast 

 numbers at their breeding-places, which are most frequently rocky islands or headlands in the 

 ocean. Most of them are somewhat migratory, usually visiting northern regions during the 

 summer for the purpose of incubation. The following lines give an accurate picture of these re- 

 markable birds : 



" On nimble wing the gull 

 Sweeps booming by, intent to cull, 

 Voracious, from the billow's breast, 

 Mark'd far away, his destined feast. 

 Behold him now, deep plunging, dip 

 His sunny pinion's sable tip 

 In the green wave; now lightly skim 

 With wheeling flight the water's brim ; 



Wave in blue sky his silver sail 

 Aloft, and frolic with the gale, 

 Or sink again his breast to lave, 

 And float upon the foaming wave. 

 Oft o'er his form your eyes may roam 

 Nor know him from the feathery foam, 

 Nor 'mid the rolling waves, your ear 

 On 3-elling blast, his clamor hear." 



The Great Black-backed Gull, L. marinus, is about thirty inches long ; back lead- 

 gray, head, neck, and lower parts white; breeds in marshes; male and female assist in making 

 the nest, which is of grass; the eggs are three. This bird flies with great ease, and swims 

 buoyantly on the water. It feeds chiefly on fish, and also sometimes on small birds. It has been 

 known to destroy weak lambs ; it is common in the European and American seas. 



The Laughing or Black-headed Gull, L. ridibundus, is seventeen inches long, and, according 

 to Wilson, is one of "the most beautiful and sociable of its genus. They make their appearance 

 on the coast of New Jersey late in April, and do not fail to give notice of their arrival by their fiimil- 

 iarity and loquacity. The iidiabitants treat them with the same indiff"erence that they manifest 

 toward all those harmless birds which do not minister either to their appetite or their avarice, and 

 hence the Black-Hcads may be seen in companies around the farm-house, coursing along the 

 river-shores, gleaning up the refuse of the fishermen, and the animal substances left by the tide ; 

 or scattered over the marshes and newly-plowed fields, regaling on the worms, insects, and their 



Vol. II.— 44. 



