THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. Y5 



age above and below mottled with brownish gray and 

 white. 



It builds a nest in a hollow in the ground; it is made of 

 grass and seaweed. The eggs are three inches by two, of 

 a gray brown with dark brown spots, two or three in 

 number. It breeds on the Atlantic coast as far south as 

 New England and in the winter goes as far south as 

 the West Indies. It is abundant in New Jersey, on the 

 coast and in large rivers, from October to April. It acts 

 as a scavenger for both ocean and rivers, picking up offal 

 and dead fish from the surface of the water. 



fir nil. Laughing, or Slack-headed Gull. Length, 

 sixteen inches; extent, three feet, six inches; bill, one and 

 a half inches; head, very dark slate, with a white spot 

 above and below the eye; neck, pure white, all around; 

 back and wings, lead gray; rump, tail and under parts 

 white, the latter with a delicate rose flush in the living 

 bird; long wing feathers, black terminally; feet and bill, 

 deep carmine. In winter the head is white, while the 

 young birds have the head and neck mottled and a term- 

 inal black band on the tail. 



It builds its nest on the ground in marshes, of grass 

 and seaweed. The eggs are two and one-tenth by one 

 and a half inches in size, a brown or dark olive in color, 

 with dark brown spots and splashes, and from three to 

 five in number. It breeds along the Atlantic coast south- 

 ward from New England and goes as far south as the 

 West Indies and South America in winter. It is a resi- 

 dent in New Jersey, from May to October, but is becom- 

 ing rare. Its cry resembles a long peal of laughter, a 

 haw-ha-ha-ha-haw. 



Gull, Ring-billed. Length, nineteen inches; bill, an 

 inch and a half, greenish yellow, with a distinct black 

 band near the tip; plumage, almost as in the Herring Gull; 

 young, as in the Herring Gull, mottled with brown, gray 



