SILVER GULL. 
and nip off the top of the crop, letting the ears of corn fall to the ground. 
Acres would be stripped in one evening by this pest. They seemed to com- 
mence their work just at sundown. A friend who related this to me, and 
who has a large farm, said the noise made by the caterpillars in nipping can be 
distinctly heard at some distance. One evening, on looking towards his crops, 
he saw hundreds of seagulls {Lams novm-Jiollandioe) enter his crop, and attack 
and devour these caterpillars. Next morning there was not a caterpillar to be 
seen. My friend told me other birds would not touch the caterpillars.” 
Mr. Hull* gives a splendid account of the Montagu Island guUery, extracts 
from which I here reproduce : “ Mr. Bailey informed me that the Gulls began 
to arrive at the island about the middle of July in each year, always appearing 
to come up from the south, in flocks of a dozen or so at a time. They con- 
tinue coming in sections until the end of August, and keep strictly to the south 
island, where they appear to be mating, but never on any account during that 
period do they visit the north island. In the first week in September they 
make ready, and on one day all rise high in the air, making a ‘ terrible clatter.’ 
They circle round and round for about an hour, and then, as if at a given 
signal, they dart like lightning down on the north island, and at once set about 
selecting nesting places and constructing nests. It is a week from the time 
they alight on the guUery until the first eggs are laid. Giving a rough 
estimate Mr. Bailey considers that about fifteen thousand pairs of Gulls nest 
on Montague Island each year. After the young birds are taught to fly, and 
become strong enough to foUow their parents, they start ofi, always going 
north, and by the end of January there is not a bird left on the island. Erom 
that date until the middle of the following July there is not a Gull to be seen 
on or about the island. 
“ Here is room for some interesting speculation. Do the birds fly north 
and gradually complete circumvolution of the whole continent ? Or do 
they merely follow the coast line for a certain distance, and then return, 
keeping to the mainland beaches, and having reached a point south of the 
island, when the coastal currents begin to run north again, turn round and 
move north with the current ? The latter seems to me the more feasible 
solution. 
“ This year (1908) Mr. Bailey informed me that the GuUs started earlier. 
When he ‘ turned in ’ about 11 p.m. on the 14th August the birds were making 
an ‘ awful clatter,’ so he was not surprised on coming out in the morning 
(15th) to see the north island ‘ just one white mass.’ The first eggs were 
laid on the 23rd August. On the 25th a great number of nests contained 
eggs, but not more than two in any case.” 
* Emu, Vol. VIIT., pp. 80-85, 1908. 
451 
