LAUGHING GULL. 
131 
NATA TORES. 
LARI DM. 
PLATE CCCIII. 
LAUGHING GULL. 
LARUS ATRICILLA. 
The Laughing Gull is a rare occasional visitant on the 
British coast, two instances only of its appearance being 
recorded by Montagu ; on the first occasion five birds were 
seen by him in a pool upon the flats near Winchelsea in 
Sussex, and two other individuals near Hastings, one of 
which was captured. 
This species is well known in the south of Europe, and it 
is, according to Mr. Audubon, frequent in the United States 
of America; particularly about the salt marshes of the 
Atlantic, where great numbers annually breed. From the 
observations of that ornithologist, it seems that the birds are 
sociable during the breeding season, having their nests close 
together on the ground; the eggs az'e three in number, 
measuring two inches and half a line in length, by one 
inch six lines in width ; they are of a dusky olive, and 
spotted with rufous brown and black. 
During fine weather this bird sits on the eggs only 
