26 BIRDS OP ALABAMA 



the last one, being drawn out with peculiar and prolonged 

 effect, the whole sounding like the odd and excited laughter 

 of an Indian Squaw, and giving marked propriety to the 

 name of the bird."t 



Food habits. — ^The food of the laughing gull, as indicated 

 by examination of the contents of 11 stomachs from Alabama, 

 consists principally of small fishes, crabs, shrimp, water 

 beetles, water bugs, ants and other Hymenoptera, grasshop- 

 pers, and spiders. One bird had taken 7 catfish, the largest 

 about 5 inches long. Bent states that its food "consists large- 

 ly of small fish or fry which it catches for itself on the sur- 

 face or steals from the brown pelican."J The species is re- 

 ported also to destroy the eggs of terns in their breeding 

 colonies. 



BONAPARTE GULL : Chroieocephcdus Philadelphia (Ord) .* 



State records. — The Bonaparte gull is probably a regular 

 winter visitor along the Gulf coast, but thus far has been 

 found in Alabama only once. On a bar at the mouth of Per- 

 dido Bay, January 25, 1912, two were seen and one was col- 

 lected by E. G. Holt. In the harbor of Pensacola, Florida, 

 February 2, 1912, we observed a good many associated with 

 herring and ring-billed gulls. 



General habits. — During its stay in the South this little 

 gull feeds in shallow bays or about the wharves in the harbors 

 and to some extent in the Gulf near shore. It is a gentle, 

 unsuspicious bird, occurring during the winter season in small 

 companies, or sometimes in flocks of considerable size. 



Food habits. — The food of the Bonaparte gull consists large- 

 ly of insects. On the seacoast, according to Bent, the birds 

 "live on small fish, shrimps, and other surface-swimming 

 crustaceans, marine worms, and other small aquatic ani- 

 mals."*t 



tLangille, J. H., Our birds in their haunts, p. 636, 1884. 

 tBent, A. C, Bull. 113, U. S. Nat. Mus., p. 160. 1921. 



*Laras philaidelpliia of the A. O. U. Check-list; for change of name see The Auk, 

 vol. 37, p. 276, 1920. 



•tBent, A. C. Bull. 118, U. S. Nat. Mus., pp. 177-178, 1921. 



