TRACKS AND TRACKING 



as thick as in a poultry yard. If there is a 

 strong wind, gulls are able by a step or two 

 directly toward it to launch their great aero- 

 planes into the air, but on calm days they run 

 forward Adgorously with wings spread, and, 

 as they are gradually borne aloft, the feet still 

 push at the sand until the tips only of the 

 claws make imprints. The distance of the run 

 is inversely proportionate to the velocity of 

 the wind. 



A curious habit of herring gulls leads to 

 peculiar tracks. I refer to the fact that they 

 not infrequently drag dead fish in tortuous 

 courses from the upper beach down to the 

 water. A dead hake eighteen inches long I 

 found had been dragged one hundred and 

 thirty-four paces to the water, and, from the 

 tracks, it was evident that the gull had labori- 

 ously walked backwards all the way, pausing 

 from time to time and relinquishing its beak- 

 hold on the fish. The fish was certainly gamey 

 enough to need a salt water souse, but the 

 gull's object was possibly to soften it. This 

 action on the part of the gull seems to me to 

 deserve credit for something more than mere 

 instinct. I cannot help thinking that the 

 lower animals, in unusual actions of this sort, 



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