22 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



which when it was full they drew to shore, and sat down, 

 and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.'^ 



These fishermen had a one-pronged fork not so very 

 different from the forks a farmer uses in making hay ex- 

 cept in the number of prongs. With this they took the 

 fish from the net, sticking the prong through each fish 

 and Lifting it out of the net — the most convenient way to 

 handle them. The good fish are thrown into the scow to 

 go to the canning factory, while those that are not salable 

 are thrown back into the sea. Most of these are fatally 

 injured by the fork, and some thousands of the dying fish 

 were soon floating over the surface of the sound in every 

 direction. 



Then the gulls were happy. They came from every 

 direction by scores. A bird would alight on a fish and 

 begin tearing at it with his hook-like bill. If the fish were 

 dead, all well and good ; the bird would tear off piece after 

 piece of flesh and eat until the fish became lighter on one 

 side, rolled over, and tumbled the bird into the water. With 

 a scream he would rise into the air and again alight on 

 his fish, but he was always too interested in eating to 

 keep this from happening again. Sometimes, however, 

 a bird alighted on a fish that was not dead, and when he 

 began tearing its flesh of course the poor fish would flop 

 and attempt to swim away. It was amusing to see the 

 surprize and apparent fear of the gull when a fish made 

 a great stroke with its tail and perhaps dodged the gull. 

 With screams of protest he would hover about, pecking 

 and tearing at the fish, but usually ended by trying another 

 victim. It took most of the forenoon to empty the 

 fish nets. Thousands of pounds of good fish were taken 

 out, but I am quite sure there were two pounds of worth- 



