A TAME HERRING GULL.
[To TEl EDITOR 07 THE " Specrrroa."] SIR,—'Six or seven years ago I was staying with a cousin " M." on the South Coast of Ireland near the Seven Heads in the month of August. I had heard gulls were useful in the garden, and said I should like to take some home. There were numbers of half-fledged gulls on the rocks, and " had some caught and gave me three, and kept three or four, which he put in his garden. My gulls also lived in my garden. I had them pinioned ineffectually, and after eighteen months or so they flew away one by one. His gulls also flew away except one, which became very tame, and is with him still. The gull often site on the roof of the house, and comes down to be fed at breakfast and luncheon time. " M." wrote to me three weeks ago :—
" The gull comes every day, and often spends most of his day here. He is very tame now, and came up the hall-door steps to me to-day. He got very wild and frightened when the American flying boats were about, and if they had gone on mucb longer I think he would have cleared out altogether. All the birds on the headlands were scared to death."
I may mention incidentally that herring gulls are mischievous
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