138 LAUGHING GULL. 



Islands, or on the coasts of Labrador or Newfoundland. I never met with 

 any of them on the Mississippi above New Orleans, although they are plen- 

 tiful in that neighbourhood during winter, and until the breeding season 

 commences; and I think that this species never travels beyond the influence 

 of the tide-waters of any stream. Wilson, in speaking of it, says that it is 

 seen on the newly ploughed fields, and around the houses of the farmers of 

 New Jersey; but the habit of visiting ploughed grounds I have not observed 

 in any one of the American Gulls, although I have frequently noticed it in 

 some of the European species, particularly Larus canus, L. ridibundus, 

 and L. argentatus. 



At all periods of the year, the Black-headed Gulls keep in flocks formed 

 of many families; and in the breeding season, or even as soon as their court- 

 ships have commenced, they assemble by hundreds of pairs, or even by 

 thousands. At this time they are so clamorous as to stun your ear with 

 their laughing-like cries, though at other seasons they are generally silent, 

 unless when suddenly alarmed, or when chased by the Jager. Their loves 

 are conducted with extreme pomposity: they strut and bow to the females, 

 throwing their head backwards, like all other Gulls, although in a less degree 

 and with a less curious motion than Cormorants. You see them first stretch- 

 ing their heads forwards; then, with open bill, vibrating tongue, and eyes all 

 glowing, they emit their loud laughing notes, which, in a general sense, 

 resemble those of many other species, though they are not precisely similar 

 to -those' of any. But before I proceed with my account of their manners, 

 I will give you the result of some curious observations which I made on 

 them in Florida. 



Previously to my visit to that interesting peninsula, I had not unfre- 

 quently noticed indications of strong amatory propensities in several species 

 of Gulls, but never to the extent exhibited by the present species, many of 

 which I saw copulating in the latter part of autumn and in winter, fully 

 three months before the usual time of depositing their eggs in that country. 

 Similar observations were made on Larus argentatus, on the coast of Maine, 

 and on Larus marinus, in the Bay of Fundy. Nay, even in Europe I have 

 seen this extraordinary tendency to reproduce out of season, as it were. On 

 some such occasions, when I was at St. Augustine, in the month of Decem- 

 ber, I have observed four or five males of the present species paying their 

 addresses to one female, who received their courtesies with evident welcome. 

 Yet the females in that country did not deposit eggs until the 20th day of 

 April. The most surprising fact of all was, that, although these birds were 

 paired, and copulated regularly, by the 1st of February, not one hacr acquired 

 the spring or summer plumage, or the dark coloured hood, or the rosy tint 

 of the breast, nor lost the white spots on the tips of their primary quills. 



