EING-BILLED GULL 323 



Nest, on the ground, of grass and seaweed. Eggs, grayish or 

 greenish, thickly spotted and scrawled with brown and purplish. 



The Laughing Gull is a summer resident of New Eng- 

 land and New York, breeding in a few stations from Meti- 

 nic Green Island on the coast of Maine southward. The 

 largest colony is on Muskeget Island, near Nantucket. In 

 1900 over a hundred pair were nesting here, and when the 

 terns rose in a vast cloud and filled the air with their harsh 

 din, the Gulls floating above them uttered cries like the 

 laughter of a lunatic. During the summer months the black 

 hood easily distinguishes the Laughing Gull from any other 

 gull or tern that breeds on our coast. Bonaparte's Gull, 

 which is a spring and fall migrant along the coast, has in 

 spring the same black hood, but in the fall both species 

 lose it ; they may always be distinguished by the outer 

 wing-feathers which are black in the Laughing Gull, white 

 with black tips in the Bonaparte's Gull. (See preceding 

 species.) 



EiNG-BiLLBD GuLL. Lavus delawavensis 



18.50 



Ad. in summer. — Head, neck, tail, and under parts white; back 

 and wings pearl-gray ; ends of quill-feathers black, the first two, 

 for over six inches, spotted with white near the tip, or tipped with 

 white; bill yellow, crossed near tip by a black band which does 

 not show except at very close range; feet pale yellow. Ad. in 

 winter. — • Similar, but top of head and hind neck streaked with 

 brownish. Im. — Brownish-dusky above; tail blackish toward the 

 tip; bill blackish. • 



The Ring-billed Gull is a common winter visitant off the 

 coast of Long Island, and a rare migrant along the coast of 

 New England. It is very difficult to distinguish this species 

 from the Herring Gull. If it is seen with Herring Gulls, 

 its smaller size and greater tameness should distinguish it. 

 (See under Kittiwake, p. 327.) 



