BIRD NOTES 83 



Mention is made in the Zoologist of a Common Gull 

 shot on the Yare, from whose mouth depended five 

 tallow candles, the sixth having been almost entirely 

 swallowed. The candles were of that sort used on 

 board the fishing luggers some years ago about ten 

 inches in length, with cotton wicks. It was sug- 

 gested that the bird had snatched up the candles 

 from the deck of a vessel ; but the probability is that 

 they had been accidentally dropped overboard, and 

 there discovered by the hungry creature. 



This and other gulls are by no means dainty as to 

 their diet, being indeed omnivorous, and apparently 

 perfectly indifferent as to taste. I have seen the 

 Common Gull in big squabbling flocks hanging 

 around the sewer gratings at Dublin, pulling out 

 refuse of the vilest description, fighting indeed for 

 it. Night-lights, candle-ends, drowned mice, rats, 

 kittens, and a hundred other forms of refuse floating 

 up from the filthy waterside of a town, are all alike 

 acceptable to the various species which congregate at 

 the entrance of Breydon. 



In the matter of eating, few birds trouble about 

 the odd ingredients making their meals so long as a 

 sufficiency is forthcoming. In June 1891, when row- 

 ing up the Bure, I was struck by the antics of a 



