Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/328

Rh pervious. The wings long, pointed; second quill feather longest, but the first nearly equal. The legs set near the middle of the body, slender, naked at the lower part; the tarsi long, palmated, yet formed for walking: the tail square or slightly forked.

One of our most abundant species is the Black-headed, or Laughing Gull (Larus ridibundus, ), the upper parts of whose body are pearl-grey, the lower parts, with the whole neck, pure white; the head, and the tips of the wings black; the beak and feet scarlet.



During the summer this Gull frequents marshes and wet meadows, where it produces and brings up its young; in the winter it retires to the