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.
No author mentions their being seen in winter, having at that time been
made a distinct species under various denominations.
* * * * *
It makes a nest on the ground with rushes, dead grass, and such like
materials, and lays three eggs, of an olivaceous brown, marked with
rusty brown blotches.—_Montagu._
LAUNCEFISH, or SANDLANCE, _s._ A sea fish which buries itself, on
the recess of the tide, more than a foot deep in the sand. It is
much used for baits.
LAUNCH, _v._ To force into the sea; to rove at large.
LAUREL, _s._ A tree, called also the cherry bay.
LAVARET, _s._ A bird; a lake fish.
Lavaret is a fish known in England by the name of shelley or fresh water
herring, in Wales by that of gwinniad; in Ireland by that of pollan; and
in Scotland by that of vangis. In colour it is most like a grayling, but
with broader and larger scales; it is common in the large lakes of most
Alpine countries, and is known at Geneva by the name of ferra; and I
believe that the salmo ceruleus, or wartmann of Bloch, or the gang-fisch
of the Lake of Constance, from a comparison that I made of it with the
ferra, is a variety of the same fish. It sometimes is as large as two
pounds, and when quite fresh, and well fried or boiled, is an
exceedingly good fish, and carves like grayling. The lavaret of
different lakes has appeared to me to vary in the number of the spines
in the fins. One brought me from the Lake of Zurich, thirteen inches
long and eight inches in girth, had twelve spines in the dorsal fin,
fifteen in the pectoral fins, eleven in the ventral, thirteen in the
anal, and eighteen in the caudal. The gang-fisch, from the Lake of
Constance, which was of a bluer colour, but I think decidedly only a
variety of the same fish, was seven inches and three-quarters long, and
four in girth, had twelve spines in the dorsal fin, fifteen in the
pectoral, eleven in the ventral, twelve in the anal, and eighteen in the
caudal. A lavaret from the Traun See had twelve spines in the dorsal
fin, seventeen in the pectoral, thirteen in the ventral fin, twelve in
the anal fin, and twenty-four in the caudal fin. One from the Hallstadt
See was a larger and broader fish, but did not differ from the lavaret
of the Traun See, except in having two spines less in the tail. It is
only taken with nets. It feeds on vegetables, and in the stomachs of
those I have opened I have never found either flies or small
fishes.—_Salmonia._
LAWN, _s._ An open space between woods; fine linen.
LAXATIVE, _s._ Medicines that open the bowels moderately, without
stimulating them so much as to increase their secretions. They
consist of castor, olive, or linseed oils; the neutral salts,
common salt, and small doses of aloes, as in the following
formula:—