J 2 West America?! Scientist. 



THE WESIERN GUEL IN CAPTIVITY. 



I wish to give an account of two odd pets which I secured on a 

 recent collecting trip to the Farallone Islands, 23 miles from San 

 Francisco Bay. They are two young Western Gulls (Larus oc- 

 cidentalis), now (Aug. 9. 1886) only about six weeks old, and 

 the most comically interesting of all the pet birds or animals I 

 ever owned. 



I secured them when quite young, and their grouth since then 

 has been somewhat extraordinary. They are quite tame, and 

 they run up to me when I approach them, in a really dangerous 

 looking manner, with their great hungry-looking mouthsstretched 

 wide open; but their intentions are harmless, they are only 

 hungry; and until I can satisfy their voracious appetites they con- 

 tinue to upbraid me uncessingly, with loud squawking cries which 

 prove very appalling to all the other fowl in the yard. The cor- 

 morant has a wide-spread reputation for enormous voracity, but 

 after watching these two young gulls devour piece after piece of 

 raw beef with an appetite almost insatiable, I have arrived at the 

 conclusion that for immensity of capacity and appetite the cor- 

 morant has a powerful rival in the gull. The natural food of 

 these young gulls is small fish, which the parents carry to the 

 nest, but in confinement I am told they will live on almost any- 

 thing which is given to them. I have pampered the taste of the 

 two birds in my possession, however until they enjoy nothing 

 but raw fresh meat. Their alimentary canal seems proof against 

 almost anything, for one of them the other day, swallowed a large 

 piece of a cup handle which lay in the yard, with no apparent in- 

 convenience. They seem quite f(/nd of fresh water, and when 

 they have swallowed all the meat possible, they want a pan of 

 water immediately, and dip their big bills into the sand in a very 

 amusing way to show that they are thirsty and want their water 

 at once. 



I have no large place for them to swim in, but they delight to 

 stand and wash themselves in a large pan filled with fresh water. 

 The birds are very quick to catch pieces of meat thrown them, 

 no matter what the distance may be, and fight over any piece 

 which chances to fall to the ground. I notice that they begin to 

 exercise their wings very much of late, performing a sort of flying 

 dance around among the astonished hens, rising about three feet 

 above the ground, and as I have seen them holding animated 

 conferences they may be meditating escape. I shall have to clip 

 their long wings so as to avoid the possibility of their sudden 

 flight to join their friends and relatives on the Farallones. 



The gull is a very intelligent bird and knows his friends and his 

 enemies well. When i first placed this pair among the chickens 

 they were the pitiful victims of a great deal of abuse from all the 



