BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 19 
end with a blackish-brown band, between which and the base 
it is greenish-yellow; tarsi and feet greenish-yellow. 
Length, 20; wing, 15; tail, 6; bill, 1.63; tarsus, 2. 
Habitat, North America. 
LARUS ATRICILLA L.  (58.) 
LAUGHING GULL. 
The Mississippi River valley is a great thoroughfare of mi- 
grating birds, some of which pass directly over its sources to- 
ward Hudson Bay and still more northern regions. But all mi- 
grants must occasionally rest their weary wings, and replenish 
their empty stomachs, in doing which they leave a local record 
for the vigilant observer. The present species is one of this 
class, having been seen and obtained only in migration in the 
autumn, and nothing more has come within my personal knowl- 
edge of its local habits. 
Years have sometimes passed without my having seen or 
heard of them, and then again several will be reported, and I 
may find one in the hands of the taxidermist, whose shelves 
have contained one or two of them from time to time, ever 
’ since I have resided within the State. Rumors have reached 
me occasionally in years gone by, that their eggs have been ob- 
tained in Cass county, but lacked assurance of their reliability; 
but more recently I have received a communication from a 
lady which makes it presumptively possible that the observa 
tion is correct. She says, in speaking of a nest found, that the 
eggs were three in number; ovoidal; grayish-green or drab; 
blotched and spotted several shades of brown and purple; and 
measured 2.30 by 1.65 inches.* I am not an expert in larine 
odlogy, so that the coloration of the eggs has less value to my 
presumption that the measures, which certainly correspond 
with those given by the authorities. I believe we shall find it 
does breed here. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Head and upper part of neck blackish lead gray, extending 
lower in front; upper and lower eyelids white posteriorly; 
lower part of neck, entire under plumage, rump, and tail, pure 
white; back and wings grayish lead color; the first six primar- 
ies are black, beginning on the first about two thirds of its 
length from the point, and regularly becoming less on the 
others, until on the sixth, it is reduced to two spots near the 
end; tips in some specimens white and in others black to their 
* Letter from Miss Loveland, 1880. 
