Larus Atricilla, Linn.
PLATE CCCXIV. Male in spring, and Young.
Before entering upon the peculiar habits of this Gull, allow me, good-natured Reader, to present you with some general observations on the genus to which it belongs.
At the approach of autumn, it frequently happens that the young birds of several species associate together, congregating at times in vast numbers, and especially during low tides, on the outer margins of sand-bars situated in estuaries. There you may hear them keeping up an almost incessant cackle, and see them running about dressing their plumage, or patiently waiting the rising of the waters, on which much desired event taking place, they generally disperse, and fly off to search for food. If disturbed while thus reposing, they shew greater shyness, perhaps, than at any other time, and the loud note of alarm from one of the group soon reaches your ear. Look at them now, Reader, as they simultaneously spread their wings, and after a step or two launch into the air, gradually ascend, and in silence rise to a great height, performing extended gyrations, and advancing toward the open sea.
It seldom happens that when one of the larger species is shot, its companions will come to the rescue, as is the case with the smaller, such as the Kittiwake, and the present species. I have thought it remarkable how keenly and aptly Gulls generally discover at once the intentions towards them of individuals of our own species. To the peaceable and industrious fisherman they scarcely pay any regard, whether he drags his heavy net along the shore, or patiently waits until his well-baited hook is gulped below the dancing yet well-anchored bark, over the side of which he leans in constant and anxious expectation. At such a time indeed, if the fisher has had much success, and his boat displays a good store, Gulls will almost assail him like so many beggars, and perhaps receive from him a trifling yet dainty morsel. But, on the opposite side of the bay, see how carefully and suspiciously the same birds are watching every step of the man who, with a long gun held in a trailing position, tries to approach the flock of sleeping Widgeons. Why, not one of the Gulls will go within three times the range of his murderous engine; and, as if to assure him of their knowledge of his designs, they merely laugh at him from their secure station.
When congregated during the love-season, their loquacity has never failed to remind me of the impetuous, unmusical, and yet not unpleasant notes of our thieving Red-winged Starlings. But when apart, and at all times excepting the periods of pairing or breeding, or while some of the smaller species are chased by their vigilant enemies the Jagers, they are usually silent birds, especially when on wing. In rainy or squally weather, they skim low over the water, or the land, always against the wind, passing at times within a few feet of the surface. Again, at such times, I have observed Gulls of every species with which I am acquainted, suddenly give a shake or two to their wings, and stop as it were for a moment in their flight, as if they had espied something worthy of their attention below; but, on closely observing them, I have become convinced that such manœuvres were performed only with the view of readjusting their whole plumage, which had perhaps been disarranged by a side current of wind.
All Gulls are wonderfully tenacious of life. When wounded or closely pursued, they are very apt to disgorge their food, or to sustain themselves against the agonies of death with uncommon vigour. They appear indeed to be possessed of extraordinary powers of respiration, through means of which they revive at the very moment when you might conceive them to have actually reached the last gasp. I have seen cases in which individuals of this tribe, after having been strongly squeezed for several minutes across the body, and after their throats had been crammed with cotton or tow, recovered as soon as the pressure was remitted, and immediately attempted to bite with as much eagerness as when first seized, when, by the by, they are wont to mute, as well as when suddenly surprised and taking to wing. In certain states of the atmosphere, Gulls, as well as other birds, appear much larger than they actually are; and on such occasions, they, of course, seem nearer than you would find them to be; for which reason, I would advise you, Reader, to be on your guard, for you may be strangely misled as to the distance at which you suppose the bird to be, and pull your trigger merely to send your shot into the sand, far short from the Gulls or other light-coloured birds in view.
Much confusion appears to exist among 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 the period when it was briefly characterized by our great master Linnæus, who, after all that has been said against him, has not yet had his equal. Alexander Wilson, who, it seems, knew something of the habits of this bird, thought it however identical with the Larus ridibundus of Europe as is shewn by the synonyms which he has given. Others, who only examined some dried skins, without knowing so much as the day or even the year in which they had been shot, or their sex, or whether the feathers before them had once belonged to a bird that was breeding, or barren, when it was procured, described its remains perhaps well enough for 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 all aware that most Gulls, and the present species in particular, assume, in the season of pairing, and 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, joined 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 that the 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. But, Reader, let us come to the point at once.
At the approach of the breeding season, or, as I like best to term it, the love season, this species becomes first hooded, and the white feathers 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 no 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 will be wanting, that portion of their plumage remaining as during winter, and although the primaries will be black, or nearly so, each of them will be broadly tipped, or marked at the end, with a white spot, which in some instances will be found to be fully half an inch in size; yet the tail of these birds, as if to prove that they are adults, is as purely white to its extreme tip, as in those that are breeding; but neither the breast, nor the under wing-coverts, will exhibit the rosy tint of one in the full 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 before 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 inches 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 spots 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 in size 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 better 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 15 1/2; extent of wings 24; wing from flexure 7 1/4; tail 2 7/12; bill along the ridge 2 2/12. Weight 10 1/2 oz.