94



W. H. Workman—Lesser Black-Backed Gulls



Gulls have a very curious habit—it is this : after eating a few mouthfuls,

even when very young, they would run across to their water bowl and

vigorously wash their bills, splashing the water all over the place.

They never lost this habit and now run over to one of the ponds, not

to drink but simply to wash their beaks.


After a few days we tried them with very small pieces of heart

mixed with the bread and milk ; this they went wild for and it was with

great difficulty that we got the younger ones their proper share. The

big fellow would get in first and if he had his way would leave no meat.

They seemed always hungry for meat, more so than for fish. Even

now fish does not interest them nearly as much as a bit of meat. What

puzzled me at this stage was how the old birds kept them in food, as

they had to fly miles to the sea for every meal.


After a few weeks it was easy work, two or three meals a day con¬

sisting of bread, milk, potatoes, and any rough scraps of meat or fish

does them well; they now get the same food only twice a day. Strange

to say, they are very fond of that maize food which, readers will

remember, I described in an earlier number ; they eat it unsoaked

and rush for it every time it is offered to them.


I think I have shown from the above how easy it would be for

our members to bring up young Gulls and keep them as pets in their

gardens. Let us now look at them from the interest point of view.

They are great pets, always in the picture, always hungry, and always

in the best of form wet or dry. One has only to open the window

and call them for a bit of bread, when they come racing across the lawn

and catch the pieces in the air as well as any dog. They get very

annoyed with the Trumpeters who, of course, have premier place in

my affections and get the tit-bits, such as a dead mouse, etc., and

when so engaged the Gulls will sneak up and try to pull the Trumpeters’

feathers, but the Trumpeters are quite able to deal with them, and

with a roar chase the Gulls all over the place.


I did not pinion these birds when young ; they have one wing

clipped but I would advise members getting young birds to pinion

them at once, it saves a lot of trouble.


We kept them in a small aviary and one day my man and I thought

we would let them have a run on the lawn before their wings were



