Laudanum, s. A soporific tincture; liquid opium.
Laughing Gull (Larus ridibundus, Leisler), s.
Length fifteen, breadth thirty-seven inches; weight ten ounces. Bill and feet rich vermilion; irides hazel; round the eyes a few white feathers; lower part of the neck, tail, and belly white; the back and wings grey; primores white, the first with the outer margin black; the second tipped with black, and marked with a black spot on the inner web. In winter the head is white, with a black patch on the ear, and another in front of the eyes; under the wing blackish grey. Female similar. Nest, according to Wilson, in meadows and islands in fresh water lakes. Eggs three, olive, with dusky blotches. It leaves Scotland in winter, but is a permanent resident in England.
These birds appear to be subject to great variety, either from age or from change of season, and in those changes they have been described as different species. The red-legged gull of authors is only this bird before it is arrived at maturity; and there seems no doubt but the old birds lose the black on the head in the winter, and do not assume it again till the breeding season; but there is generally a little black about the ears; the bill and legs also lose their bright colour.
We have seen hundreds of these birds together in the winter, but have never seen one with a black head at that season. They appear in great abundance in the autumn, on the coast of Caermarthen and Glamorganshire, particularly about the mouths of rivers. At that time the head is white, in some mottled with brown, with a dusky spot behind the ear; the back and wing coverts in young birds are mottled with brown and white; the tail crossed with a dusky bar at the end; the bill and legs scarcely tinged with red. Towards spring the back begins to assume the ash-colour; then the wing coverts, and the bill and legs, obtain their proper colour; the black behind the ears spreads and meets behind, and on lifting up the feathers of the crown about the month of March, the stubs of the black feathers are to be observed. At this time also some few black feathers appear on the throat; but the perfect black head is not assumed during their stay in those parts. In Devonshire we have seen them complete in feather later in the spring, but never remember to have observed the same appearance in winter.
The laughing gull is said to breed in Lincolnshire in the fens, and in other parts of England, upon the borders of rivers.
Dr. Plott assures us, in his History of Staffordshire, that in his time these birds annually visited a pool in Staffordshire. He also assures us that they would not breed on any other land than that of the proprietor of the before-mentioned place; and that on the death of the owner, they deserted the pool for three years, but only retired to another estate belonging to the next heir.
The young birds were accounted good eating, and were taken by driving them into nets before they could fly; that fifty dozen were taken at a driving, and that five shillings per dozen was the usual price.
The young were kept alive and fattened on offal. It is also added that three drivings were generally made in a season; and that anciently as many were taken as produced a profit of fifty or sixty pounds.