268 THE Birps Axsout US. 
now skimming closely over the watery element, watching the motions 
of the surges, and now rising into the higher regions, sporting with 
the winds, while he inhaled the invigorating breezes of the ocean 
and listened to the soothing murmurs of its billows.” 
And of a well-known species, common to the Atlan- 
tic seaboard and our Eastern river valleys, he says,— 
“The Laughing Gull, known in America by the name of the 
Black-headed Gull, is one of the most beautiful and most sociable 
of its genus. They make their appearance on the coast of New 
Jersey in the latter part of April, and do not fail to give notice of 
their arrival by their familiarity and loquacity. The inhabitants treat 
them with the same indifference that they manifest towards all those 
harmless birds which do not minister either to their appetite or their 
avarice, and hence the Black-heads may be seen in companies around 
the farm-house, coursing along the river-shores, gleaning up the 
refuse of the fishermen and the animal substances left by the tide; or 
scattered over the marshes and newly-ploughed fields, regaling on 
the worms, insects, and their larvee, which, in the vernal season, the 
bounty of Nature provides for the sustenance of myriads of the 
feathered race. 
“On the Jersey side of the Delaware Bay, in the neighborhood of 
Fishing Creek, about the middle of May, the Black-headed Gulls 
assemble in great multitudes, to feed upon the remains of the King- 
crabs which the hogs have left, or upon the spawn which those 
curious animals deposit in the sand, and which is scattered along the 
shore by the waves. At such times, if any one approach to disturb 
them, the Gulls will rise up in clouds, every individual squalling so 
loud that the roar may be heard at the distance of two or three 
miles. 
“Tt is an interesting spectacle to behold this species when about 
recommencing their migrations. If the weather be calm, they will 
rise up in the air, spirally, chattering all the while to each other in 
the most sprightly manner, their notes at such times resembling the 
singing of a hen, but far louder, changing often into a haw, ha ha 
ha haw! the last syllable lengthened out like the excessive laugh of 
a negro. When mounting and mingling together, like motes in the 
sunbeams, their black heads and wing-tips, and snow-white plumage, 
give them a very beautiful appearance. After gaining an immense 
