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, hi thick weather, getting many a 
friendly warning of the whereabouts of out- 
lying rocks from the hoarse cries of the gulls 
that have their haunts on these menaces to 
inshore navigation. 
Seagulls are not commonly made pets of, 
the nearest approach to such adoption being 
97 H 
