head and bugling “Police! Police!” to friends as they fly by, 
but at low tide he loves to wade in the mouth of the creeks, 
snatching, first on one side and then the other, at specks 
which the bubbling fresh water carries by him. If you stand 
upon the bridge across the stream and drop bits of bread, 
he will accept your bounty, but he insists that you and the 
dog keep your distance, for he has seen many guns fired at 
unwary creatures by hunters, who hide in pear hy thickets, 
taking unfair advantage of their cover. 
Billy has been watched when he thought iiinwels 
swimming alone, as he lifted himself up and plunged beneath 
: 5 
eee Re ee Se POD Ton eit Pe aed ee ’ 
the surface of the waves. Gulls are so light that he had to | 
make quite an effort to get down into the water, but he 
often succeeded. When he came up with a full mouth, he © | 
would swim and wade to shore, where he would drop his 
catch and take it up again in a careful fashion. Sometimes 
he would give it a vigorous shake or strike it upon the 
ground, breaking off bits which he hastily swallowed. On 
one such occasion, as he swam away, an observer walked 
down to the sand and found that he had left the outer joints 
of the legs of a crab, but all the rest of the animal had been 
swallowed. At other times he was found eating parts of 
starfish and pieces of dead shark, for all is grist that comes 
to his mill. 
Billy and the other gulls in this bay near pecmecian | 
Washington, have learned a lesson from the Northwest | 
Crows, which also feed there. Many times a gull, or a crow, 
hunts a crab, a mussel, or other small creature out of the 
' gea-weed, or from the edge of the water, and flies a few 
_ strokes up into the air and drops the mouthful upon the 
stones. Then they return and swallow it, if in the right 
condition. At times they fly and drop the dainty several 
times before they eat it, and sometimes they have trouble — 
in letting it drop. Then, by the vigorous motions of feet 
and head, the watcher fancies that the crab’s big pinching 
TA 
