Changing Habits of Birds ' 201 



CHANGING HABITS OF BIRDS. 



A FEW years ago none of the feathered tribes stood 

 higher in the estimation of the farmer than the 

 gulls which followed in the track of the plough. 

 Low forms of grub life were the staple food of the birds, 

 and their presence was generally supposed to enhance 

 the productive properties of the soil. But of late years, 

 according to the "Glasgow News," various observers have 

 noted that the gull has been manifesting a growing 

 partiality for ripening corn. So rapidly has the new taste 

 been acquired that seed-sowing is associated with a new 

 source of worry. An eminent agriculturist states that, 

 in the course of the last few weeks, he has observed flocks 

 of gulls searching for grain with a pertinacity that would 

 have done credit to barndoor fowls. According to this 

 authority, the starling is another bird whose habits have 

 undergone a great transformation within comparatively 

 recent years. 



