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THE LAUGHING GULL. 
Larus atricitta. 
PLATE XXV. 
Xema atricilla, Gould. — Black-winged or Laughing Gull of 
British authors , 
This is even more rare than the Masked Gull as a 
British visitant, and the specimen in the collection of 
Col. Montagu still remains the only one that can be 
claimed to our Fauna, it was obtained in the month 
of August in the shingly flats near Winchelsea. It 
has been noticed sparingly • in South and South- 
eastern Europe. This is properly a North Ameri- 
can species, and Mr. Audubon found it breeding 
on the Tortuga Keys, New Jersey, at Gavelston in 
Texas, and at Great-egg Harbour, at the latter place 
on the borders of a salt marsh bordering the sea 
shore. It constantly evinced a disliko to rocky 
shores. We possess specimens from Tobago. 
The head, throat, and fore part of the neck, grey- 
ish black, with a spot above and below each eye 
white ; the lower part of the neck all round, upper 
tail-covers, tail, and all the under parts, pure white ; 
mantle and wings dark grey, tips of the greater- 
covers, secondaries, and tials, white; three first 
