. Bombay ducks; an account of some of the every-day birds and beasts found in a naturalist's Eldorado . lt and flies differ-ently. It is not so graceful. A gull looks best whenriding on the water like a duck. It possesses greatpowers of flight, but is not the equal of the tern in thisrespect; its wings are smaller in proportion to the sizeof the body, hence gulls are often seen resting on thewater, an attitude which terns rarely adopt, althoughtheir feet are webbed and admirably fitted to act aspropellers. Gulls are fond of fish, but they are inclined to belazy. In preference to fishing for th
. Bombay ducks; an account of some of the every-day birds and beasts found in a naturalist's Eldorado . lt and flies differ-ently. It is not so graceful. A gull looks best whenriding on the water like a duck. It possesses greatpowers of flight, but is not the equal of the tern in thisrespect; its wings are smaller in proportion to the sizeof the body, hence gulls are often seen resting on thewater, an attitude which terns rarely adopt, althoughtheir feet are webbed and admirably fitted to act aspropellers. Gulls are fond of fish, but they are inclined to belazy. In preference to fishing for themselves they willfollow a ship and pick up the scraps thrown overboardby the cook, or will hang about near a human fishermanfor the sake of the fish rejected by him. Almost anyday, half a dozen laughing-gulls may be seen in attend-ance on the fishermen of the Cooum, waiting for whatthese latter cast away, for there apparently exist aquaticcreatures at which even a Cooum fisherman draws theline! A number of crows usually keep the gulls is consequently a great scramble for the leavings. WINGED FISHERFOLK 273 of the net, stand-up fights sometimes taking placebetween a lurking villain crow and a gull over atit-bit. A number of gulls inhabit the Thames in London,and feed almost exclusively on the bread thrown tothem by the passers-by. These gulls have now becomequite an institution, and many clerks and other Citymen make a point of feeding them every day. On the voyage to and from England gulls followthe steamer for the greater part of the journey. It ison these occasions that one is best able to realize theflying powers of a gull. The birds keep pace with aP. and O. steamer with ridiculous ease. A dozen flapsof the wing in a minute suffice to enable them to out-distance the ship. The commonest gull in Madras is known to natural-ists as the laughing-gull {Larus ridibundus). Why it isso called I have never been able to discover. It isdifficult to describe this or any o
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirdsin, bookyear1906
