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 hsh realize that they are fur¬ 
nishing both mirth and meat, and go below. 
Danger past, the hsh 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 
hsh-hnding 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 hsh are scarce the gulls resort to 
the beach and strip every carcass, whether of hsh, flesh, or fowl, 
which the sea has cast up. Once, after a storm, on a northern beach, 
1 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 by the Author 
A CLOSE-UP 
