THE SEAGULL 



may have no great range, but at any rate it 

 is not lacking in variety, suggesting to the 

 playful imagination laughter, tears, and other 

 human moods to which they are in all pro- 

 bability strangers. The curious similarity 

 between the note of a seagull and the whining 

 of a cat bereft of her kittens is very striking, 

 and was on one occasion the cause of my being 

 taken in by one of these birds in a deep and 

 beautiful backwater of the Sea of Marmora, 

 beside which I spent one pleasant summer. 

 In this particular gulf, at the head of which 

 stands the ancient town of Ismidt, gulls, 

 though plentiful in the open sea, are rarely 

 in evidence, being replaced by herons and 

 pelicans. I had not therefore set eyes on a 

 seagull for many weeks, when early one 

 morning I heard, from the farther side of a 

 wooded headland, a new note suggestive of 

 a wild cat or possibly a lynx. My Greek 

 servant tried hi his patois to explain the 

 unseen owner of the mysterious voice, but it 

 was only when a small gull suddenly came 

 paddling round the corner that I realised my 

 mistake. 



In addition to being at home on the sea- 



