120 ANIMAL LIFE UNDER WATER 



Near Ipswich, on October 10th, 1913, nine 

 gulls were shot whilst feeding in a small creek 

 on the River Orwell opposite Pin Mill. They 

 were all found to contain fish and crustaceans — 

 i.e. shrimps (Crangon vulgaris). 



With every low tide the gulls feed in the 

 shallow water of the creeks on the Orwell. On 

 one occasion a flock of approximately 160 gulls 

 in one situation, and another flock of over 200 

 a little below them, were feeding and fighting 

 for food-. Nine black-headed gulls were obtained 

 at one shot from a punt gun. One had evidently 

 just joined the flock, and only contained blennies 

 and earthworms. Two others were not shot 

 dead and disgorged large quantities of shrimps, 

 but the six gulls shot dead contained 297 shrimps 

 in all — an approximate average of fifty shrimps' 

 for each bird. These two flocks, therefore, 

 probably contained over 17,000 shrimps, and the 

 water was still one hour before low tide. One 

 gull which contained 75 shrimps was nearly full 

 up, and 15 more would probably have completed 

 the meal, and the gull would have flown ashore 

 to digest. We may thus fairly allow 90 shrimps 

 as the average number a gull would hold, and 

 on this estimate these two flocks would probably 



