The Western Gulls 



Taken in Santa'Barbara 



suit; and the birds quarter the sea at a con- 

 siderable height until some indication of a 

 traveling school is noted. Tell-tale haste on 

 the part of any one bird is remarked by distant 

 comrades, and all hurry to the scene of 

 slaughter. Excited screams publish the news 

 still more widely, if the prospect is a good one, 

 and a thousand birds may join the feast before 

 the bewildered fish realize that they are fur- 

 nishing both mirth and meat, and go below. 

 Danger past, the fish soon return, and the 

 wily gulls, according to Anthony, by stalking 

 them from the rear, are able to make another 

 raid before the alarm has become general. 



The Indians understood the value of this 

 fish-finding propensity on the part of the gulls, 

 and when the birds followed the smelt ashore, 

 at a northern village, a shout would run from 

 hut to hut and the seine be hurried out. 

 And the fishermen of today are so much alive 

 to the advantages afforded by these obser- 

 vation planes that they share the booty good- 

 naturedly when a fat haul has been made. 

 When fish are scarce the gulls resort to 

 the beach and strip every carcass, whether of fish, flesh, or fowl, 

 which the sea has cast up. Once, after a storm, on a northern beach, 

 I followed a high-piled windrow of dead tom-cods for miles. The 

 gulls were in their glory, but in spite of the fact that meat was so 

 abundant, I noticed that each bird stuck to his job, once it was 

 started, and was willing to contest his rights against all comers. See- 

 ing a half-picked carcass at the end of a trail upon the sand, I traced 

 it one hundred paces, by actual count, to its original resting place. 

 In dragging it the successful bird had, naturally, pulled backward, so 

 that his course was marked throughout by reversed footprints. 



Next after carrion, clams are a favorite food. These are gleaned 

 from the surface, where they have been cast by the tide; or, in rarer 

 instances, they are dug, most actively, from their burrows in the sand. 

 The "razor-backs" are easily crushed and gutted ; but the cockles require a 

 most ingenious expedient. According to many witnesses, a gull will carry 

 the clam aloft and drop it on the rocks, where the shell will be smashed 

 and the contents released. Anthony tells of instances where birds had 

 only half learned their lessons and dropped the clams upon the sand, 



1382 



Photo bv the A itthor 



A CLOSE-UP 



