298 
THE LAUGHING GULL. 
members of tlie gemis Lams, they perform their aerial 
evolutions with great celerity. Specimens are foimd on all 
our maritime coasts, and the habits of all are to a great 
extent similar, and so closely resemble those of the other 
members of their family, that we need not here describe 
them. With some authors, Yarrell among the number, we do 
not find them placed in a separate genus, but in company with 
most of the other Gulls under the common generic head of 
Larus, which in the arrangement of Linnaius comprehended 
all the birds which are here given as belonging to the order 
Mersatoi^es, or Plungers. 
The Laughing Gull, as the first named in the above list 
of Sea Mews is commonly called, is about eighteen inches 
in length. The head and part of the neck are of a blackish 
leaden grey colour, the lower parts white, with a slight 
roseate tinge ; the back and wings are light bluish grey ; 
the longer quills are black ; there is a black crescent be- 
fore the eye, and a grey patch behhid it ; the bill and feet 
are a rich carmine. The wings of this bird extend three 
inches beyond the tail, and this, with its slender make, gives 
the impression of great lightness and power of flight. It 
is an American species, and was first described as a visitor 
to the British shores by Montagu, in his ^ Ornithological 
Dictionary,' where it is stated, that in the month of August 
1776, five of them were seen feeding together on a pool 
upon the shingly flats near Winchelsea. One was shot ; 
but although the other four remained about the spot for 
a considerable time, they were too shy to be procured. It does 
not appear that any other specimen than that which is 
preserved in the British Museum was ever obtained in the 
country. 
Catesby, in his ' Natural History of Carolina,' calls this 
the Laughing Gull, and Audubon, who gives a very ex- 
tended account of this bird, says, that in the breeding 
season, when they assemble by hundreds of pairs, or even 
by thousands, they are so clamorous as to stim your ears 
with their laughing-like cries, though at other times they 
are generally silent, unless when suddenly alarmed, or 
when chased by the jager. It was probably not to this bird, 
but to IX more familiar species, whose shrill scream Miss 
