lgp J B L A C K - H E A D E D , OR LAUGHING GULL,
.Much, contusion appears to exist spMing authors regarding our
Laughing.Gull, and this, in my humble opinion^ simply because not one
of them has studied it,, in its native.haunts, and at all seasons, since thé
period when it WAS briefly characterized by ..our great master LHBWBB,
who, after all that lias been said against him, has not yet had his equal.
ALEXANDER WILSON, who, it seems, knew something .of the habits of
thisi bird, thought it however identical with the Larus rldiimdus of
Europe, as is shewn by the synonymes which he hits given. Others,who
only examined:.Sfjne dried skins, without knotting so much as the day
or even the year in wliich they, had been shot, or their se®, or whether
thi! feathers; before them had once belonged to a, bird that was breeding,
or barren, when it was procured, .described its remains perhaps
well enough ibr their own purpose, but certainly not with all the
accuracy which is: necessary to establish ,once and, for ever a distinct
species of bird. Others, not at ail aware that most Gulls, and thé present
species in particular, assume, in the season of pairing,, it^l. in a
portion of the breeding time, beautiful rosy tints .in certain parts of
their plumage, which at other periods are pure white, have thought
that differences:. of this sort, jifined to those of the differently-sized
white spots observable in particular specimens, and not corresponding
with the like markings in other birds of the same size,and form, more
or less observable at different periods on the tips of the quills, were
quite sufficient to prove thatKlfo young bird, and the: breeding bird,
and the barren bird, of one and the same species, differed specifically
from, the old. bird, or the winter-plumage bird. Buti
: Reader, let us
«oint; to the poipt at once.
AtMhe approach of the breeding season, or, as I like best to term
it, the love season, thjs species becomes first hooded, and the white
feathere of its breast, and those of the lower surface of its wings, assume
a rich blush of roseate, tint. : If the. birds procured at that, time
are several years old and perfect in their powers of reproduction, which
is easily ascertained on the spot, their primary quills shew little or,nos
•white at their extremities, and their hood descends about three quarters
of an inch .lower on the throat than on the. hind part of the head,
provided the bird be a male. But should they be barren birds, the hood
wiU be wanting, that portion, of their plumage remaining as during winter,
and althoughtte primaries will be black, or nearly so,: each of them
B L A C K - H E A D E D , OR LAUGHING GI LL.
will be browily tipped, or marked at the end, with a white spot, which
in some instances will be found to bo fully half an inch in size yet
the tail of these birds, as if, to prove that they are adults, is a®'Jurely
white to its extreme tip, as in those that are breeding; but neither the
breast, nor the under wingieoverts, will exhibit the rosy tint of one in
the fall perfection of its powers.'
The males of all the Gulls with which I am acquainted, are larger
than the females; and this difference of size is observable in the young
birds even beiiire they are fully fledged. In all of these, however, putting
aside their sex, I have found great differences of size to exist, sometimes,
as much as two ittcheS in length, with proportional differences in
the bills, tarsi, and toes; and this, in specimens procured from one flock
of these gulls at a single discharge of the gun, and at different seasons of
the year. The colour of their bills too is far from being always alike, being
brownish-red in some, purplish or of a rich and deep carmine in
others!,„ As to the: white spats on the extremities of the primary quills
of. birds of this family, I would have you, Reader, never to consider
them as, affording essential characters. Nay, if you neglect them altogether,
you will save yourself much trouble, as they will only mislead
you by their interminable changes, and you may see that the spots
on one wing are-sometimes different incize and number from those on
the other wing of the same specimen. If all this be correct,, as I assure
you it must be, being the result of numberless observations made in
the course,of many years, in the very places of resort of our different
-Gulls, will, you not agree with me,- Reader, that the difficulty of distinguishing
two very nearly allied species must be almost insuperable
when one has nothing bettor than a few dried skins for objects of observation
and comparison ?
The Black-headed Gull may be said to be a constant resident along
the southern coast of the United- States, from South Carolina to the
Sabine River; and.I have found it abundant over all that extent both
in winter and in summer, but more especially on the shores and keys
of the Floridas, where I found it breeding, as well as on some islands
in the Bay of Galveston in Texas. A very great number of these birds
however remove, at the approach of spring, towards the Middle and
Eastern Districts, along the Shores of which they breed in considerable
numbers, particularly on those of New Jersey and Long Island, as well