44 LAUGHING GULL. 



witli fish. I could perceive little or no difference between the colors of 

 the male and female. 



Length of the Sooty Tern seventeen inches, extent three feet six 

 inches ; bill an inch and a half long, sharp pointed and rounded abdve, 

 the upper mandible serrated slightly near the point ; nostril an oblong 

 slit, color of the bill glossy black ; irides dusky ; forehead as far as the 

 eyes white ; whole lower parts and sides of the neck pure white ; rest 

 of the plumage black ; wings very long and pointed, extending, when 

 shut, nearly to the extremity of the tail, which is greatly forked, and 

 consists of twelve feathers, the two exterior ones four inches longer 

 than those of the middle, the whole of a deep black, except the two 

 outer feathers, which are white, but towards the extremities a little 

 blackish on the inner vanes; legs and webbed feet black, hind toe 

 short. 



The secondary wing feathers are eight inches shorter than the longest 

 primary. 



This bird frequently settles on the rigging of ships at sea, and, in 

 common with another species, S. Stolida, is called by sailors the Noddy. 



GENUS XCIV. LARUS. GULL. 

 Species. X. ATRICILLA. 



LAUGHING GULL. 



[Plate IXXIV. Fig. 4.] 



Larus atricilla, Linn. Sysf. ed. 10, torn, i., p. 136, 5.— Gmel. Syst. i., p. 600, 8.— 

 Ind. Orn. p. 813, 4. — Laughing Gull, Catesby, i., pi. 89. — Lath. Gen. Syn. in., 

 p. 383, \2.—Arct. Zool. No. 454.— ia Mouelte rieuse, Beiss. vi., p. 192, 13, pi. 18, 

 fig. 1. — Mouette d capuchon plomh4, Temm. Man, A' Orn. p. 779. 



Length seventeen inches, extent three feet six inches ; bill, thighs, 

 legs, feet, sides of the mouth and eyelids, dark blood red ; inside of the 

 mouth vermilion ; bill nearly two inches and a half long ; the nostril is 

 placed rather low ; the eyes are black ; above and below each eye there 

 is a spot of white ; the head and part of the neck are black, remainder 

 of the neck, breast, whole lower parts, tail-coverts and tail, pure white ; 

 the scapulars, wing-coverts, and whole upper parts, are of a fine blue 

 ash color ; the first five primaries are black towards their extremities ; 

 the secondaries are tipped largely with white, and almost all the prima- 

 ries slightly ; the bend of the wing is white, and nearly three inches 



