FASTIDIOUS GULLS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—In your article on "London in December" in last week's issue you allude to feeding gulls with bread from the Thames Embankment. What " gulls " they must be; at Southport they will look at nothing less than skate's liver; and this reminds me of an experience of mine which not only testifies to their fondness for that fare, but also to their amazing keenness of perception, as the following account will show. On a mild and balmy February day I was in a rowing- boat about four to five miles from Southport with two fisher- men. We had sailed to the spot in a fishing-boat, and had launched the dinghy for the purpose of hauling in the ground lines. During this interesting occupation I had amused myself by throwing unused pieces of bait, &a., away from the boat in the hope of attracting a gull. Let me say here that there was not a gull in sight, and there was not one certainly within a mile or more. The fisherman saw what I was about, and knowing the pampered appetite of the Southport gull, said " If you want to get a gull up, throw in a bit of skate's liver." As there were several skate in the catch, I procured a piece of liver, and threw it out and waited; and, sure enough, in a very short time I saw one or two gulls in the far distance making a bee-line for the boat. They soon arrived, and stayed just as long as I regaled them with what
they evidently considered was the proper offering from a human being, and such as they were used and entitled to, and left in disgust as soon as I presumed to try them again with bits of herring. I was certainly astonished at the marvellous perception—was it vision only ?—that enabled these gulls at such a distance to differentiate between the varieties of food offered them. Your London gulls are evidently not as yet
such epicures.—I am, Sir, &c., H. LINDLEY. Pear Tree Cottage, Altrincham.
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