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ALMOST HUMAN 
number of ibises — those strange, long-beaked and long-legged birds — 
and of Pacific gulls, bad tempered and, as Shakespeare said, “sudden and 
quick in quarrel.” They enjoy quarrelling with the ibises, and the 
ibises consider a fight with the gulls as their chief pleasure, so all thrive 
A Peaceful Interlude. 
in spite of their noisy squabbles. Although the gulls are much heavier 
than the ibises, the latter have all the advantage of very much longer 
beaks, and a gull that presumed too far would soon find himself minus 
a tuft of feathers, without a chance in the world of paying back the 
