22 JUNE 1929, Page 15

A TAME Gum.

Londoners are accustomed to the tameness of the black- headed gulls, which both in St. James's Park and along the Embankment are easily persuaded to take dainties from the Outstretched hand. The herring gull, though it has a wilder habit of life, can be as friendly or as brave. One of their tribe frequents a golf club pavilion at Mullion, on the Coldish

coast, and is well known to the members as Peter. The culinary inadequacies of the club have encouraged alfresco picnic lunches, and on these Peter grows fat. He probably weighs more than any herring gull in the records, and will swallow sandwiches, cheese, cake, or bread till his neck bulges back, front, and to the sides. He will take these almost from the hand; and will walk up the steps into the veranda as' if he were at home. ' He has a permanent feud with a much dishevelled crow; the only other bird that battens on the golfer's lunch. This queer bird has a broken leg, a tail minus a feather or two, and many feathers out of place, but is still ludicrously superior to Peter in any air manoeuvre that involves a- quick turn.

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