ae 
Effect of Captivity and Severe Weather 
ee 
The interruption in the fishing industry 
seriously affected the GULLS, which depend 
so much on the refuse thrown overboard by 
the fishermen. They became ravenous, and it 
was reported that late in January 1915, when 
the German cruiser Blicher was sunk in the 
North Sea, enormous flocks of GULLS were at- 
tracted by the dead fish killed by the explosions 
incident to the sea fight (Zoologist, 1915, p. 97). 
Wild birds, which in days of peace pro- 
fited by the crumbs from the rich man’s 
table, found that even these were cut off 
when an economy in bread was enforced by 
law. Although, in the earlier stages of the 
War, it was no uncommon sight to see a 
wounded soldier in his distinctive blue uni- 
form feeding the GULLs, yet it became 
criminal, as the War dragged on, to indulge 
in such acts of charity. On June oth, 1917, 
an elderly woman was fined £2 2s. at Woking 
for giving bread to wild birds ; she stated that 
she had lost her only son in Mesopotamia, 
that all she used were the dirty bottom 
crusts she could not eat, and that she had fed 
the birds for seventy years and would con- 
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