394 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



tame and unafraid, there was a fair field for all, and I was sure 

 no gull flew away without some scrap to satisfy appetite. I was 

 informed that the bird feeding was held every morning at the 

 same hour, and that the hotel guests regarded the ceremony as one 

 of the attractions of the place. 



More recently, in California, I began a similar practice, and 

 soon had an expectant colony to feed on the sandy shore near our 

 hotel. Quite a respectable collection of western and other gulls 

 gathered about 9.30 each morning, and when I appeared with a 

 bag of " seconds," some twenty or thirty birds rose to meet me and 

 circled about my head until I arrived at the feeding ground. Then 

 we had a sort of athletic " meet." 



One of the first contests was staged by throwing into their midst 

 a large, hard, breakfast roll. This edible was forthwith seized by 

 a gull, who, unable to swallow it, at once made off, followed by 

 half a dozen others in search of a place of safety. The pursued and 

 the pursuers flew a fine aerial course; the bird, with its mouth full 

 of bread, often rising high in air, swooped, dodged, and doubled. 

 Finally, he broke away in a much wider circle than usual, intent on 

 tiring out his pursuers. However, all these maneuvers ended the 

 same way, in the dropping of the roll, to be caught up by a second 

 gull and the continuation of the flight and pursuit. Eventually 

 some experienced bird would grasp the breakfast dainty and fly 

 down the coast for half a mile or so until his pursuers abandoned 

 the chase. But I noticed on these occasions that the successful bird 

 did not return ; his time for the subsequent half hour was occupied 

 in soaking the hard bread preparatory to tearing it in pieces small 

 enough for deglutition. Occasionally we substituted for the roll a 

 hard-boiled egg. This much-prized article was immediately caught up 

 and passed from one gull to another by vigorous action until it was 

 either smashed by falling on a rock or until some bird with an 

 abnormally wide gullet managed to swallow it. To accomplish 

 this latter feat while being chased at full speed seemed no easy 

 task; it is possible that it was sometimes accomplished only by 

 crushing the egg between the mandibles of a particularly powerful 

 gull. 



After a time we came to recognize individuals of the flock. One 

 fat old bird we christened " Squawker." As soon as one of us ap- 

 peared in sight this gull opened his mouth wide, emitted a series of 

 loud, hoarse cries, and darting at the other gulls in his immediate 

 vicinity proceeded to run amuck through the whole flock. This 

 strategem, intended, one may suppose, to intimidate the other 

 feeders, he repeated every two or three minutes while the feast 

 lasted. He rarely got anything to eat, however, unless food were 

 thrown directly to him ; he was so busily engaged in squawking, air- 



