362 
LARIM. 
peared to be all young birds of the year. Wild ducks, wigeon, 
and teal* were in great flocks in the bay upon the day on 
which the large bodies of gulls appeared. They moved southward 
also. There was no storm to bring these birds here ; the wind was 
from various points, with very frequent changes, during the whole 
month of September; there was no breeze until the 27th; — - 
on the 29th and 30th it blew hard. 
The Lams ridibundus and L. atricilla have had the name of 
laughing gull bestowed upon them, but the only species acknow- 
ledged as a laugher by the shooters in Belfast Bay is the herring- 
gull. It takes circuits in the air, uttering all the while a laugh- 
ing note, which has really been interpreted as such by an old 
shooter of my acquaintance, who has frequently shot the poor 
bird merely for — as he believed — laughing at him. 
Gulls of all species which have been through the day feeding 
high up the estuary, and about the oozy banks of the Lagan, are 
said b} r good observers to collect together in a flock at the “ dusk 
of the evening/' from autumn to spring, and go to deep water to 
remain for the night. During this evening flight their various 
calls, described as musically mournful, are uttered; but on re- 
turning to the shallows at the early dawn of the morning they 
are silent, and then fly in a scattered manner. A similar difference 
between the morning and evening flight of some of the Anatulce 
has been already noticed. 
Manner of Feeding , fye . — A “ play of gulls," as it is called 
upon the coast, and which in summer we daily witness in the 
vicinity of the great breeding stations — often from the summit of 
ranges of majestic cliffs, whence we gaze upon a great expanse of 
ocean— is a most lively and beautiful spectacle, and a suitable 
subject for the graphic pen of the author of f Wild Sports of the 
West/ To use his words — “ We were bearing down to a glorious 
play of sea-birds, and I got a gun uncased to practise at the 
gulls. It was a curious and bustling scene. Above, thousands 
of these birds were congregated in a small circle, screaming and 
* Thirty-five teal were killed in the morning by two shooters, eleven of which 
were brought down by an ordinary musket charge. 
