CLASS II. AYES: 
ORDER 8. NATATORES. 
345 
THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 
Genus LARUS : Larus. — This includes several species of Gull, a very numerous race, dis- 
persed along the shores of the ocean in nearly all parts of the world. These are exceedingly 
voracious birds, continually skimming over the surface of the waves in search of their finny prey, 
and often following the shoals of fish to great distances. They generally congregate in vast 
numbers at their breeding-places, which are most frequently rocky islands or headlands in the 
ocean. Most of them are somewhat migratory, usually visiting northern regions during the 
summer for the purpose of incubation. The following lines give an accurate picture of these re- 
markable birds : 
" On nimble wing the gull 
Sweeps booming by, intent to cull, 
Voracious, from the billow's breast, 
Mark'd far away, his destined feast. 
Behold him now, deep plunging, dip 
His sunny pinion's sable tip 
In the green wave ; now lightly skim 
With wheeling flight the water's brim ; 
Wave in blue sky his silver sail 
Aloft, and frolic with the gale, 
Or sink again his breast to lave, 
And float upon the foaming wave. 
Oft o'er his form your eyes may roam 
Nor know him from the feathery foam, 
Nor 'mid the rolling waves, your ear 
On yelling blast, his clamor hear." 
The Great Black-backed Gull, L. marinus, is about thirty inches long ; back lead- 
gray, head, neck, and lower parts white; breeds in marshes; male and female assist in making 
the nest, which is of grass ; the eggs are three. This bird flies with great ease, and swims 
buoyantly on the water. It feeds chiefly on fish, and also sometimes on small birds. It has been 
known to destroy weak lambs ; it is common in the European and American seas. 
The Laughing- or Black-headed Gull, L. ridihundus, is seventeen inches long, and, according 
to Wilson, is one of "the most beautiful and sociable of its genus. They make their appearance 
on the coast of ISTew Jersey late in April, and do not fail to give notice of their arrival by their famil- 
iarity and loquacity. The inhabitants treat them with the same iudiff"erence that they manifest 
toward all those harmless birds which do not minister either to their appetite or their avarice, and 
hence the Black-Heads may be seen in companies around the farm-house, coursing along the 
river-shores, gleaning up the refuse of the fishermen, and the animal substances left by the tide ; 
or scattered over the marshes and newlj^-plowed fields, regaling on the worms, insects, and their 
Vol. II.— 44. 
