4130 The Zoologist — September, 1874. 



all, so for some days his life was despaired of, as he rejected almost 

 everything that was offered to him, only eating a few scraps of raw 

 meat, until 1 thought of trying slugs. These he took to at once, 

 and for some time subsisted on nothing else, there being fortunately 

 no difficulty in obtaining a supply of both slugs and snails. Nothing 

 will induce him now to swallow a slug, or even look at it. In his 

 feeding is displayed one of his chief peculiarities. He always 

 washes or wets his food, whatever it may be, before deglutition. 

 At first T gave the bird credit for being very clean and particular, 

 especially as the snails, which he took great pains to wash, were 

 mostly covered with dirt and particles of earth. But from observa- 

 tions made lately, and from various works that I have consulted on 

 the subject, I am now inclined to think that this washing is an 

 absolute necessity, without which deglutition would be almost 

 impossible, at least with some of the Laridae. 



A short time ago a dead chicken was given to Peter, which he 

 carried off to his water and wetted well, and this before he even 

 attempted to swallow it. A few days after he picked up a couple 

 of young rats that had been killed in a trap, and took them one by 

 one to the water, and then, after his usual process, easily disposed 

 of them. Now Mr. Yarrell, speaking of a gull in his possession, 

 says, " The first time a bird was given to him, after some ineffectual 

 efforts to swallow it, he paused a moment, and then, as if suddenly 

 recollecting himself, he ran off full speed to a pan of water, shook 

 the bird about in it until well soaked, and immediately gulped it 

 down without further trouble." Now here is an interesting example 

 of instinct in two birds, acting differently under similar circum- 

 stances. The instinct of Mr. Yarrell's bird remedied a failure, 

 which the instinct of my bird avoided. In both cases, however, 

 the washing seems to have been necessary ; but that it is not 

 always so, the following anecdote, given by Mr. G. Donaldson, in 

 the ' Naturalist,' seems to show : — " A gull I had, used to kill four 

 or five sparrows a day : to accomplish this it got on the best 

 terms with some pigeons, and mixed with them while eating; then 

 stooping, so as to assume the appearance of a pigeon, it set at a 

 sparrow as a pointer would do at his game, then in a moment had 

 his prey by the back and swallowed it." 



Mr. Yarrell also mentions a gull that killed and devoured two 

 clutches of young ducks, but he makes no mention of the bird 

 washing them. From this it appears that a gull can sometimes 



