io6 JUNGLE FOLK 



In habits, gulls are marine kites. Grandeur of flight 

 is the most marked attribute of each. They do not 

 cleave the air at great velocity, like swifts or " green 

 parrots." It is the effortlessness, the perfect ease with 

 which kites and sea-gulls perform their aerial move- 

 ments for hours at a time, rather than phenomenal 

 speed, that compels our admiration. A dozen gentle 

 flaps of the wings in a minute suffices to enable a gull 

 to keep pace with a fast steamship. 

 Cowper sang of — 



" Kites that swim sublime 

 In the still repeated circles, screaming loud." 



These words are equally appropriate to the kites of 

 the sea. 



I have watched, until my eyes grew tired, kites 

 floating in circles in the thin atmosphere, with scarce 

 a movement of the pinions ; I have seen gulls keeping 

 pace with a steamer without as much as a quiver of 

 their wings. In each case the wind was the motive 

 power. 



Both kites and gulls fly with downwardly directed 

 eyes. Their hfe is one long search for food. So keen 

 is their vision that no object seems minute enough to 

 escape their notice. The smallest piece of bread 

 thrown from a moving ship is immediately pounced 

 upon by the " wild sea-birds that follow through the 

 air," but no notice appears to be taken of a piece of 

 paper rolled up into a ball. 



Gulls, like kites, are omnivorous. Some species 

 occasionally prey upon fish which they catch alive ; this 

 method of obtaining food is, however, the exception 



