LARUS. .'349 



Along the coast one sees at intervals numbers of these birds following up the schools of 

 young fish, on which they feed. They are almost omnivorous, but their natural food consists 

 principally of small fish and marine animals, and are notorious nest plunderers, eating the eggs 

 of other sea-birds. They pick up scraps of food thrown overboard from vessels, meat, fatty 

 substances, etc. One may observe this at Circular Quay, Sydney, in the vicinity of the large 

 ocean-going vessels. In ] )ecember, 1907, these birds followed the steamer, or we were visited at 

 intervals during a passage from Sydney to Hobart, and again while returning across Bass Strait 

 from Launceston to Melbourne. In Octolier, igio, while on my way to Lord Howe Island, 

 it was only seen on the same afternoon as the steamer left Sydney. About gardens it is 

 in great request for ridding them of snails, slugs, worms and insects and their larvjp. Mostly 

 these birds are cruelly pinioned, doomed never to fly again, others more fortunate have one wing 

 cut, so that all hope is not lost, while a few, a very few, are perfect and unmutilated in any way. 



FLIfiliT OF SILVER fiULLS, FiOSE HAY, PORT JACKSON. 



One of the latter, kept for a long while by Mr. John Black, of Chatswood, in his garden, would 

 at times take flight around the neighbourhood, returning again later on. The last of many 

 times I observed it on its aerial journey, was on the 2nd January, igii. A few weeks after Mr. 

 Black informed me that the bird had llown away and never returned. For the photograph from 

 which the accompanying figure has been reproduced, I am indebted to Mr. J. Benton, who took 

 it from a steamer, while passing Rose Bay. 



The late Mr. K. II. Bennett wrote as follows from Mossgiel, South-western New South 

 Wales, in 1886 : — " Lams mvcB-hollandia is occasionally met with this far inland in good seasons, 

 when the swamps are full of water. It gives preference to open sheets of water, and is rarely, 

 if ever, seen on swamps overgrown with Polygonum or other vegetation. I have never known of 

 an instance of it breeding here." 



