126 BLACK-HEADED, OR LAUGHING GULL. 
these manceuvres rendered me almost frantic with delight. At times, 
several gulls would attempt to alight on the head of the same Pelican, 
but finding this impossible, they would at once sustain themselves 
around it, and snatch every morsel that escaped from the pouch of the 
great bird. So very dexterous were some of the Gulls at this sport, 
that I have seen them actually catch a little fish as it leaped from 
the yet partially open bill of the Pelican. And now, Reader, I will 
conclude this long article with some fragments from my journals. 
‘Tortugas, May 1832.—Whilst here, I often saw the Black-headed 
Gull of Wilson, sucking the eggs of Sterna fuliginosa, and Sterna stolida. 
Our sailors assured me that these gulls also eat the young of these two 
species of Terns when newly hatched. 
Great Egg Harbour, May 1829.—Like all other gulls, the Larus 
Atricilla disgorges its food when attacked bya Lestris, or when wounded, 
or suddenly surprised ; but on all occasions of respite this gull is apt 
to return to it, and vulture-like to swallow it anew. It differs how- 
ever from the larger species of gulls, by never, as far as I have ob- 
served, picking up bivalve shells, for the purpose of letting them fall 
to break them, and afterwards feed on their contents. On the 
ground they walk with considerable alertness, and not without a cer- 
tain degree of elegance, especially during the love season. Whilst 
floating or swimming on the waiter, they are graceful in a high degree, 
and when seen, as they oftentimes are, in groups of many pairs, rising 
with, or sinking amidst the billows, which ever and anon break on the 
sandy shores of the coast, their alternate appearance brings to the 
mind of the bystander ideas connected with objects altogether different 
from the simple yet beautiful Laughing Gull. 
April 1. 1837.—South-west pass of the Mississippi. L. Aétricilla 
abundant here at this season, as well as at New Orleans. Saw some 
floating on logs during a heavy breeze. Not noisy yet, though they 
and L. zonorhynchus are in full spring dress (the old birds). 
- Barataria Bay, April 1837.—This species is abundant, following 
the porpoises, whilst the latter are fishing, and attending on them, as 
they do on the Brown Pelicans, which I saw here tormented by these 
birds, as in the Floridas. These Gulls follow the Brown Pelicans 
to their roosts, and along with them sit on grounded logs, at some dis- 
tance from the shores, to avoid the attacks of racoons and other car- 
nivorous animals. 
