GULLS 105 



untruthful, but they are undoubtedly biased, 

 and by acceptance of an unproved opinion 

 a wrong estimate is formed of the fish-feeding 

 habits of gulls. As an illustration, in 1913, 

 in conjunction with a representative of a 

 Fishery Board, I examined several gulls feeding 

 in the sea off Bawdsey Ferry, near Felix- 

 stowe, and found them all glutted with sprats. 

 Three days later a bird was forwarded to me 

 with the information that the herring gulls were 

 still feeding on sprats. The specimen, when 

 shot, was plunging with a flock of one hundred 

 birds into the water, over a sandbank. In view 

 of the fact that these gulls were apparently fish- 

 ing in a spot where, three days previously, we 

 had found them full of sprats,, it was not alto- 

 gether unreasonable to assume that they were 

 still feeding on fish. On examination, however, 

 it was found that the specimen sent contained 

 nothing but brittle stars, twenty of which had 

 been recently captured, and therefore were com- 

 paratively whole. Broken portions of several 

 others indicated that the complete " catch " was 

 considerably larger. 



The brittle star is a starfish injurious to fish 

 life, and if the other birds in the flock were feed- 



