BLACK-HEADED, OR LAUGHING GULL. 1i9 
Why, not one of the Gulls will go within three times the range of his 
murderous engine ; and, as if to assure him of their knowledge of his 
designs, they merely laugh at him from their secure station. 
When congregated during the love-season, their loquacity has never 
failed to remind me of the impetuous, unmusical, and yet not unpleas- 
ant notes of our thieving Red-winged Starlings. But when apart, and 
at all times excepting the periods of pairing or breeding, or while some 
of the smaller species are chased by their vigilant enemies the Jagers, 
they are usually silent birds, especially when on wing. In rainy or 
squally weather, they skim low over the water, or the land, always 
against the wind, passing at times within a few feet of the surface. 
Again, at such times, I have observed Gulls of every species with which 
I am acquainted, suddenly give a shake or two to their wings, and stop 
as it were for a moment in their flight, as if they had espied something 
worthy of their attention below; but, on closely observing them, I have 
become convinced that such manceuvres were performed only with the 
view of readjusting their whole plumage, which had perhaps been dis- 
arranged by a side current of wind. 
All Gulls are wonderfully tenacious of life. When wounded or 
closely pursued, they are very apt to disgorge their food, or to sustain 
themselves against the agonies of death with uncommon vigour. They 
appear indeed to be possessed of extraordinary powers of respiration, 
through means of which they revive at the very moment when you might 
conceive them to have actually reached the last gasp. I have seen cases 
in which individuals of this tribe, after having been strongly squeezed 
for several minutes across the body, and after their throats had been 
crammed with cotton or tow, recovered as soon as the pressure was 
remitted, and immediately attempted to bite with as much eagerness as 
when first seized, when, by the by, they are wont to mute, as well as 
when suddenly surprised and taking to wing. In certain states of the 
atmosphere, Gulls, as well as other birds, appear much larger than they 
actually are; and on such occasions, they, of course, seem nearer than you 
would find them to be; for which reason, I would advise you, Reader, 
to be on your guard, for you may be strangely misled as to the distance 
at which you suppose the bird to be, and pull your trigger merely to 
send your shot into the sand, far short from the Gulls or other light- 
coloured birds in view. 
