Effect of Captivity and Severe Weather 



The interruption in the fishing industry 

 seriously affected the GULLS, which depend 

 so much on the refuse thrown overboard by 

 the fishermen. They became ravenous, and it 

 was reported that late in January 1915, when 

 the German cruiser Bliicher was sunk in the 

 North Sea, enormous flocks of GULLS were at- 

 tracted by the dead fish killed by the explosions 

 incident to the sea fight (Zoologist, 1915, p. 97). 



Wild birds, which in days of peace pro- 

 fited by the crumbs from the rich man's 

 table, found that even these were cut off 

 when an economy in bread was enforced by 

 law. Although, in the earlier stages of the 

 War, it was no uncommon sight to see a 

 wounded soldier in his distinctive blue uni- 

 form feeding the GULLS, yet it became 

 criminal, as the War dragged on, to indulge 

 in such acts of charity. On June gth, 1917, 

 an elderly woman was fined 2 zs. at Woking 

 for giving bread to wild birds ; she stated that 

 she had lost her only son in Mesopotamia, 

 that all she used were the dirty bottom 

 crusts she could not eat, and that she had fed 

 the birds for seventy years and would con- 



