LAUGHING GULL. 
27 
In winter the head is white, the feathers on its upper part and on the 
nape more or less brownish-grev in their concealed part, that colour 
appearing in slight patches here and here, and especially along the posterior 
margin of the part that' is coloured in summer, as well as on a small space 
before the eye. The rosy tint of the breast disappears after the breeding 
season. In other respects the plumage is as in summer. 
Young fully fledged. 
Bill, feet, inside of mouth, and edges of eyelids, olivaceous-brown. The 
upper parts are brownish-grey, the feathers edged with paler ; the hind 
part of the back light bluish-grey ; upper tail-coverts nearly white ; tail 
pale greyish-blue, with a broad band of brownish-black at the end, the 
extreme tips narrowly edged with white, the outer margin of the lateral 
feathers of the same colour. The first four primaries are destitute of white ^ 
at the tip. A smaller patch before the eye, two slight bands on the eye- 
lids, and the throat, greyish-white ; the lower part of the neck brownish- 
grey, the rest of the lower parts greyish-white, the sides darker, theaxillars 
ash-grey, the lower surface of the wing dusky-grey. 
In an adult male the tongue is H inches long, slender, tapering, emargi* 
nate at the base, with minute papillae, the tip horny along the back. The 
oesophagus is 6 \ inches long, 5 twelfths in diameter until it enters the tho- 
rax, then dilates to 1 inch and 5 twelfths ; its walls are extremely thin, its 
inner coat longitudinally plaited. Proventriculus very short, the belt of 
oblong glandules being only 7 twelfths in breadth. Stomach rather small, 
oblong, II inches long, 10 twelfths broad ; its lateral muscles rather thick, 
the tendons large ; the inner coat thick, horny, and thrown into very promi- 
nent longitudinal rugae, its upper margin abrupt, and manifestly not con- 
tinuous with the inner coat of the proventriculus, as some have supposed 
the epithelium to be in all birds. In the stomach remains of fishes. Intes- 
tines 1 foot inches long, its general diameter i inch. Rectum 11 inches ; 
coeca extremely small, 21 twelfths long, i twelfth in diameter. 
Trachea 5J inches long ; its rings 110, extremely thin and feeble ; its 
diameter at the top twelfths, at the lower part 21 twelfths. The lateral 
muscles are scarcely perceptible, the sterno-tracheal very slender ; the infe- 
rior larynx small ; the bronchi of moderate length and width, with 25 half- 
rings. 
