BLACK-HEADED, OR LAUGHING GULL. 125 
until the following spring, when, I think, the latter nearly attain the 
plumage of their parents, though they are still smaller, and have the 
terminal band on the tail. 
The Black-headed Gull frequently associates with the Razor-billed 
Shearwater, Rhynchops nigra, in winter; and I can safely say that I 
have seen more than a thousand of each kind alight on the same points 
of estuaries and mouths of rivers; the Gulls standing or sitting by them- 
selves, at no great distance from the Razor-bills. Now and then they 
would all suddenly rise on wing as if frightened, perform a few evolu- 
tions in the air, and again settle on the very same spot, still, however, 
keeping separate. While thus in the company of the Razor-bills, the 
Gulls are with great difficulty approached, the former being exceed- 
ingly wary, and almost always rising when a person draws near, the 
Gulls immediately following them, and the two great flocks making off 
to some distant point, generally not very accessible. If taken up on 
being wounded, these gulls are apt to bite severely. If, on being shot 
at, they fall on the water, they swim fast and lightly, their companions 
all the while soaring above, and plunging towards them, as if intent on 
rescuing them. This great sympathy often proves fatal to them, for, 
if the gunner is inclined, he may shoot them down without any diffi- 
culty, and the more he kills the more his chances are increased. 
On the 10th of May 1832, it was my good fortune to be snugly on 
board the “ Lady of the Green Mantle,” or, in other words, the fine 
revenue cutter the Marion. The Gulls that laughed whilst our anchors 
were swiftly descending towards the marvellous productions of the 
deep, soon had occasion to be sorrowful enough. As they were in 
great numbers, officers and men, as well as the American Woodsman, 
gazing upon them from the high decks of the gallant bark, had ample 
opportunities of observing their motions. ‘They were all busily en- 
gaged on wing, hovering here and there around the Brown Pelicans, 
intent on watching their plunges into the water, and all clamorously 
teasing their best benefactors. As with broadly extended pouch and 
lower mandible, the Pelican went down headlong, so gracefully fol- 
lowed the gay rosy-breasted Gull, which, on the brown bird’s emer- 
ging, alighted nimbly on its very head, and with a gentle stoop in- 
stantly snatched from the mouth of its purveyor the glittering fry that 
moment entrapped ! 
Is this not quite strange, Reader? Aye, truly it is. The sight of 
