222 
LAUGHING GULL. 
gorating breezes of the ocean, and listened to the soothing 
murmurs of its billows. 
The laughing gull, known in America by the name of the 
black-headed gull, is one of the most beautiful and most so- 
ciable of its genus. They make their appearance on the coast 
of New Jersey in the latter part of April ; and do not fail to 
give notice of their arrival by their familiarity and loquacity. 
The inhabitants treat them with the same indifference that 
they manifest towards 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 newly-ploughed fields, rega- 
ling on the worms, insects and their larvae, which, in the ver- 
nal season, the bounty of Nature provides for the sustenance 
of myriads of the feathered race. 
On the Jersey side of the Delaware Bay, in the neighbour- 
hood of Fishing Creek, about the middle of May, the black- 
headed gulls assemble in great multitudes, to feed upon the 
remains of the king crabs which the hogs have left, or upon 
the spawn which those curious animals deposit in the sand, 
and which is scattered along the shore by the waves. At such 
times, if any one approach to disturb them, the gulls will rise 
up in clouds, every individual squalling so loud, that the roar 
may be heard at the distance of two or three miles. 
It is an interesting spectacle to behold this species when 
about recommencing their migrations. If the weather be calm, 
they will rise up in the air, spirally, chattering all the while to 
each other in the most sprightly manner, their notes at such 
times resembling the singing of a hen, but far louder, chan- 
ging often into a liaw^ ha ha ha haw ! the last syllable length- 
ened out like the excessive laugh of a negro. When mount- 
ing and mingling together, like motes in the sunbeams, their 
black heads and wing-tips, and snow-white plumage, give 
them a very beautiful appearance. After gaining an immense 
