GULL. 1 37 



up pieces of bread, which these birds catch in the air;* not uncom- 

 mon on the Caspian Sea ; also found in America, coming into New 

 England in May, and departing in August.f 



3— LAUGHING GULL. 



Lams atricilla, Ind. Orn. ii. 813. Lin. i. 225. Gm. Lin. i. 600. Fn. llelv. N. C. 



Petr. xv. 478. t.22. f. 2.— young bird. Act. Holm. iv. 120. 8. Tern. Man. Ed. 



ii. p. 780. Frankl. Narr. App. p. 695. 

 Gavia ridibunda, Bris. vi. 192. B. t. 18. f. 1. Id. Svo. ii. 413. 

 Larus albus, Scop. i. No. 106. 



major cinereus Baltneri, Rail, 129. 8. Will. 263. t. 67. 



minor capite nigro, Klein, Av. 139. 16. 



Baltner's Great Sea Mew, Will. Engl. 346. pi. 67. 



Grande Mouette blanche of Belon, Bewick, ii. pi. p. 228. 



Laughing Gull, Gen. Syn. vi. 383. Cat. Car. i. pi. 89. Br. Zoo/. 1812. ii. 193. Arct. 



Zool. ii. No. 454. Amer. Orn. ix. pi. 74. f. 4. Orn. Diet. Sf Supp. 



THTS is rather bigger than the Black-headed Gull; length 

 eighteen inches, breadth three feet; weight eight ounces. It appears 

 to have much the same markings in respect to plumage, but the bill 

 is stronger, and the head larger in proportion ; the tail too, is shorter; 

 the colour of the bill is red, but the legs are reddish black ; or, 

 according to some, very deep red. That described by Brisson, as the 

 female, having a cinereous head, and the forehead and throat spotted 

 with white, as well as the one in the Petersburgh Transactions, of 

 a less size, and the head spotted black and white, are no doubt young 

 birds, or described at a season when the black head was not con- 

 spicuous. — This species seems to be most plentiful in Russia, on 

 the River Don, particularly about Tschercask -, the note resembles 

 a coarse laugh, whence the name of the bird. We have had our 

 suspicions of this bird being in England, as our late friend, Mr. 

 Boys, once mentioned having met with a Gull with black legs, but 

 we were unconscious of its being a British Species. I had also a 



* Russ. Alep. f Arct. Zool. 



voi. x. T 



