46 BIRD NOTES 



The consequence of this is that they often appear, 

 when the wind is off shore, to be trying to fly 

 inland again. A very beautiful sight it is to see a 

 large gull slide down the wind, as one does some- 

 times. It turns to leeward at a great height, and 

 seems then to abandon itself to the conflicting or 

 combined forces of gravity and the wind, which 

 carry it, without one flap of the wings, far out of 

 sight in a slow and majestic oblique descent. 

 There are few things in nature more beautiful 

 than the motion of a gull. 



January 24, 1882. 



Why are sparrows and chaffinches so much 

 more afraid of a white plate than the other birds 

 are ? I have been putting enticing little bits of 

 bacon on such a plate lately, apart from the bread, 

 for convenience sake, and have been amused by 

 the effect it produced upon the different birds. 

 The effect on the whole is decidedly good, for 

 whereas the larger birds used to get almost all the 

 bacon, now the small ones get it all, though I 

 have no doubt the bigger ones take a good deal of 

 it from them when they fly away, making a cat's 

 paw of them, as it were. At first when I had 

 put the plate down they all seemed shy of it. 

 The little cole tit was the first to venture, and 

 took a piece off the edge. Then came the tomtit, 

 very much alarmed but soon reassured, and taking 



