NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND THEIR ALLIES. 53 



collected two pairs nesting on Green Island, near Yarmouth, Nova 

 Scotia. 



The species is a common breeder on the islands off the coast of 

 Louisiana — East Timbalier, Tern, Breton, and Battledore (Job) — and 

 it still breeds on Bird and Padre Islands and Matagorda Peninsula, 

 on the coast of Texas (Strecker), where 30 years ago it nested at 

 many places from Galveston to Brownsville. 



Winter range. — On the Atlantic coast, buds of this species retire in 

 winter to South Carolina and are abundant at Charleston all through 

 the cold season (Wayne). Thence they range throughout the West 

 Indies, and a very few wander south of the breeding range to George- 

 town, British Guiana (Loat); Surinam (Saunders); and to Cajutuba, 

 Brazil, February 20, 1835 (Pelzeln). The laughing gull is a common 

 winter bird on the United States coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and 

 less common on the Mexican coast. It even crosses Mexico to the 

 Pacific, where it has been noted on the coast from Mazatlan (Law- 

 rence) to Manzanillo (Baird), Tehauntepec (Sumichrast), Tonala 

 (Nelson and Goldman), and Chiapam, Guatemala, January, 1863 

 (Salvin). A straggler was taken at Santa Lucia, Peru, December 

 20, 1876 (Taczanowski) ; there is one record without exact locality 

 for Chile (Hartert); and one bird was taken the winter of 1881-82 

 in Bermuda (Reid). 



Other wandering birds have been collected at Buffalo, N. Y. 

 (Bergtold); Cayuga Lake, N. Y. (Rathbun); Sodus Bay, N. Y., 

 August 28, 1910 (Guelf); Montreal, Canada, October 24, 1888 (Win- 

 tie); Toronto, Ontario, May 23, 1890 (Cross), and June 1, 1898 

 (Fleming) ; Blencoe, Iowa, October 10, 1894 (Anderson) ; Lake 

 Koshkonong, Wis., once, July, 1860 (Kumlien and Hollister); Alda, 

 Nebr., July, 1880 (Powell); Kansas, six times (Bunker); Sloans Lake, 

 near Denver, Colo., December, 1889 (Smith); and Fort Wingate, 

 N. Mex. (Coues). 



Spring migration. — The first laughing gulls arrive on the coast of 

 Virginia the first of April (Bailey); Cape May, N. J., April 11, 1907 

 (Hand); and Muskeget Island, Mass., May 7, 1891, May 10, 1892, 

 May 17, 1893, May 9, 1896, May 7, 1898, average May 10 (Mackay). 

 Two wandered inland to Gainesville, Tex., April 10,. 1886 (Ragsdale). 



April and May are the nesting months on the coast of Venezuela; 

 May and June find the birds nesting in Florida, Jamaica, and Cuba; 

 the earliest eggs taken on the coast of Virginia were on June 3, and 

 the nesting season continues to the middle of July. Here the eggs 

 of the laughing gull are among those gathered regularly for human 

 food. All the eggs are taken systematically until about July 4, 

 after which the birds are left undisturbed to lay another set and raise 

 their young (Bailey). On Muskeget Island, Mass., the earliest eggs 



