March, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
129 
There were several thousand scaups in 
a huge raft feeding, and I watched the 
gulls fly up and down the river, passing 
over the scaups repeatedly and once 
within a few feet of them, and the 
ducks paid absolutely no attention to 
them. A little further up the river at 
the edge of Knells Island about twenty 
black ducks were feeding in shallow 
water. 
Gulls flew up and down, past, and 
over them without the ducks raising 
their heads. One gull dropped to the 
shore and picked up a mussel in his feet 
and carried it into the air and dropped 
it to break the shell, doing this many 
times before succeeding, and he was be- 
tween two small bunches of black ducks 
and less than thirty feet from them, and 
his actions had no effect on the ducks. 
Considering the thousands of gulls 
that winter along the Sound coast, if the 
ducks were to fly with alarm every time 
a gull passed they would be in the air 
most of the time. 
Here on the Sound, some time ago, 
some one started a story that the gulls 
were running their bills into the breath- 
ing holes of the soft shell clams and 
pulling the clam’s heads or necks off, 
thus killing them and accounting for the 
clam’s scarcity. 
It is surprising how many people will 
believe these stories without finding out 
for themselves whether they are true or 
not. 
Wilbur Smith, Connecticut. 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
I N answer to Mr. F. D. Harlow’s inquiry 
“Do Gulls Frighten Ducks?” I wish 
to make the statement: “No.” The 
gulls are not following the ducks to dis- 
turb them, but if on a salt-water coast 
it often happens that they follow a com- 
mon seal just beneath the surface, and 
the seal will at once frighten away ducks 
there may be on the water. On a lake 
or stream the same thing will happen 
with the approach of an otter or other 
smaller animal that swims below the 
surface. Gulls will follow such an ani- 
mal as if it were a school of fish. I 
have had such experiences on fresh and 
salt water and when shooting from a 
reef of rocks have even seen one of my 
duck stool disappear beneath the sur- 
face for a couple of seconds, then pop 
up again with Master Seal between the 
stool. Seals will seldom pass a flock of 
swimming ducks, without disturbing 
them, as I have noticed a few times on 
our coast here at Newport in very cold 
weather. 
E. Phillips, Rhode Island. 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
I HAVE read with interest the letter of 
* your subscriber in which he asks 
whether gulls frighten wild ducks. Many 
years of experience and observation en- 
able me to answer this question posi- 
tively in the affirmative. But what 
seems to me to be much more remarkable 
is that gulls frighten geese a good deal 
more than they do ducks. Only occa- 
sionally will wild ducks pay the slightest 
attention to a gull, but, under certain 
conditions, geese invariably are thrown 
into a state of wild fear. 
You will recall that your correspondent 
said that after the ducks had flown away, 
he noticed a gull sailing over the spot 
where they had been sitting. That is the 
explanation. Neither wild ducks nor 
wild geese are frightened by gulls except 
when they (the ducks or geese) are rest- 
ing on the water, and then only if the 
gull sets its wings and sails downward in 
the direction of the sitting flock. It is 
•for this reason that I am convinced the 
ducks or geese mistake the gull, when in 
the position described, for some species 
of hawk or other bird of prey that at- 
tacks them on their breeding grounds or 
elsewhere. Inasmuch as I have observed 
this occurrence not once, but literally hun- 
dreds of times — both in connection with 
resting flocks of wild birds as well as 
live decoys — I cannot believe it is at all 
rare. If you are acquainted with any of 
the Long Island guides who specialize on 
point shooting for geese in Moriche.s or 
Shinnecock Bays you may easily obtain 
confirmation of the above. I have shot 
with a number of them and have often 
discussed the question with them. Our 
debate was never as to the fact, but only 
as to what species of hawk the gull re- 
sembles. 
Canada Goose. 
ARROW-HEADS 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
A BOUT the year 1892 I was guide on 
the south line of the Yosemite Na- 
tional Park for a detachment of Troop 
“I,” Fourth Cavalry, U. S. A. We were 
camped near the head of the main fork 
of the San Joaquin River, in Soda 
Meadows. Near there is a mountain cov- 
ered with Obsidian or volcanic glass, 
which is black or nearly so, but in some 
parts of California it is white or clear, 
like the so-called pebble. The Indians 
make their arrows from both kinds. The 
fractore of Obsidian is Gcncloidal, which 
makes it chip just right for arrow-heads. 
Some fellow in Texas says the Indians 
heat the rock and then touch it with 
water. I picked up a piece of Obsidian 
and in the presence of Lieut. Davis made 
an arrow head with my pocket knife, 
using the space which the blade occupies 
when open, on the end of the handle. 
I gave it to Lieut. Davis, who expressed 
his surprise, and said he would keep it to 
show what a white man could do. A 
boy living at “Tex Hill,” near Placer- 
ville, California, made beautiful ones 
from anything he got hold of, even 
broken bottles. 
Buckskin Charley, California. 
RABBIT SITTIN’ 
T ENCLOSE a photograph of a wild 
A rabbit which I thought might be of in- 
terest to the readers of Forest and 
Stream. J. B. Pardoe, New Jersey. 
ANOTHER RARA AVIS 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
T HE article by Widgeon in the Janu- 
ary number remind; me of a “Rara 
avis” I shot a few years ago in the 
Laurentian Club territory in the Prov- 
ince of Quebec. 
Unlike Widgeon’s mine was evidently 
a freak. It was a male sheldrake and 
the peculiarity of it was the fact that the 
feet instead of being webbed were lobed 
or palmated like the feet of the grebes. 
Unfortunately I did not preserve the 
skin. A few months after shooting it I met 
Dr. Daniel Giraud Elliot on the street 
and described the bird to him and asked 
him if he could identify it by my de- 
scription. He laughed and reminded me 
of the remark of ,the Irishman on first 
, seeing a giraffe, “There ain’t no such 
animal.” However, it was he who sug- 
gested that it was a freak sheldrake but 
he said he had never seen one like it. 
H. F. De Puy, Maryland. 
Photograph of a live wild rabbit by Dr. Pardoe 
