164 THE BLACK-HEADED GULL. 
The Black-headed Gull is the most beautiful and most 
sociable 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 com- 
panies 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, regaling on the worms, insects, 
and their larvae, which, in the vernal 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 neigh- 
bourhood 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 
