274 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



hint, I straightway walked over to a neighbouring 

 shop and bought a bag of fresh fish, which an 

 assistant, at my request, cut up into small pieces 

 for me. This food vanished like magic when I 

 reached the Embankment. It was, of course, 

 only a tiny drop in the great ocean of want, but 

 ere long I had the satisfaction of seeing my fish- 

 monger with laudable enterprise meeting the 

 dinner-hour demand for " gull food " by getting 

 parcels of fresh herrings and sprats ready for 

 humane sympathisers to buy and distribute from 

 bridge and bank amongst the starving birds. 



Although we have experienced a series of 

 mild winters since those dearthful days, the 

 black-headed gulls at any rate have not for- 

 gotten their benefactors, and return season by 

 season, with unfailing regularity, to gladden the 

 hearts of many Londoners. They have grown 

 wonderfully bold, and it is an amusing sight to 

 stand on the footbridge spanning the sheet of 

 ornamental water in St. James's Park, and 

 watch them fearlessly taking all sorts of scraps 

 from the outstretched hands of an admiring 

 crowd. They appear to be inordinately fond of 

 cheese, and will catch the tiniest crumb thrown 

 to them in mid air almost as dexterously as a 

 swallow would hawk a gnat. 



There is something strange in being able to 

 photograph these birds in their winter garments 



