he would drop it and quickly follow it down. The 
object of this was to break the shell, but very 
often when he dropped a clam nothing happened, 
so he would have to carry it up again. Now and 
then he would get one with a particularly hard 
shell, and he would have to drop it ten or fifteen 
times before it would break. It often took a 
good deal of work to get a morsel of clam to eat, 
but gulls regard this as a choice delicacy and 
evidently think it is well worth all the effort it 
takes. 
IV 
ON CALM days after eating their fill, the gulls 
would collect in flocks on the broad, sandy 
beach. Their favorite place was above the 
reach of the waves and just below the soft, dry 
sands that stretched away a hundred yards or 
more to the low dunes. Here they would stand 
for an hour at a time preening their feathers. 
Now and then one would take a few steps, pick 
up a fragment of shell, and soberly walk off a 
few yards and drop it with the air of one who 
feels that he is putting some neglected object 
22 
