GULLS AT ST. IVES 27 



hanging over the harbour, the birds moving round 

 and round over the idle boats in endless procession, 

 and this went on for about an hour, when, finding 

 that nothing came of it all, they went sadly away. 



On yet another morning I was awakened before 

 daylight, but this was a happy occasion, the boats 

 having come in during the small hours laden with 

 the biggest catch of the season. The noise of the 

 birds made me get up and dress in a hurry to go and 

 find out what it was all about. For an hour and a 

 half I stood at the end of the little stone pier watch- 

 ing the cloud and whirlwind of vociferous birds, and 

 should have remained longer but for a singular acci- 

 dent a little gull tragedy which brought a sudden 

 end to the feast. The men in fifty boats while occu- 

 pied in disengaging the fish from the nets were con- 

 tinually throwing the small useless fishes away, and 

 these, falling all round in the water, brought down a 

 perpetual rush and rain of gulls from overhead ; 

 everywhere they were frantically struggling on the 

 water, while every bird rising with a fish in his beak 

 was instantly swooped down upon and chased by the 

 others. Now one of the excited birds while rushing 

 down by chance struck a rope or spar and fell into 

 the water at the side of a boat, about forty yards 

 from where I was standing. It was a herring gull in 

 mature plumage, and its wing was broken. The 

 bird could not understand this ; it made frantic 

 efforts to rise, but the whole force exerted being in 

 one wing merely caused it to spin rapidly round and 

 round. These struggles eventually caused the shat- 



