THE SEAGULL 



to smart yachting craft ; and I remember 

 how at Avalon, the port of Santa Catalina 

 Island (Cal.), various devices were employed 

 to prevent them alighting. Boats at their 

 moorings were festooned with strips of bunt- 

 ing, which apparently had the requisite effect, 

 and the railings of the club were protected by 

 a formidable armour of nails. On the credit 

 side of their account with ourselves, seagulls 

 are admittedly assiduous scavengers, and 

 their services in keeping little tidal harbours 

 clear of decaying fish which, if left to accumu- 

 late, would speedily breed a pestilence, cannot 

 well be overrated. The fishermen, though they 

 rarely molest them, do not always refer to 

 the birds with the gratitude that might be 

 expected, yet they are still further in their 

 debt, being often apprised by their movement 

 of the whereabouts of mackerel and pilchard 

 shoals, and, in thick weather, getting many a 

 friendly warning of the whereabouts of out- 

 lying rocks from the hoarse cries of the gulls 

 that have then- haunts on these menaces to 

 inshore navigation. 



Seagulls are not commonly made pets of, 

 the nearest approach to such adoption being 

 97 H 



