The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-05-15
GULL-FARlTLNG.
Novel Business on the Long Island Coast-A Barbarity of Fashion--A Tame Gull's Accomplishments.

I l Gull's Accomplishments.
 [From the New York Evening Post.l
 A novel industry is conducted by
 Fritz Gritman, an old bayman. on the
 small beach off the south coast of Long
 Island known as Jones' Beach. It is
 within the recollection of thousands oi
 gunners and summer visitors when the
 Long Island beaches were crowded with
 sea-gulls and small summer glllls, beau
 tiful birds which sailed gracefully over
 the beach and the water, utterly harm
 less and asking of nature only small
 supply of the fish of the sea as their | food. Tn the past ten years these beau | tiful birds have been almost annihila-
 ted, and, strange to say, their cruel oib- | liberation Is due entirely to women, who
 would in most cases cry out in denun-
 citation of any cruelty to bird. Fash
 ion decreed that wings such as gulls' wings should be a fashionable adorn- ment of women's hats. This gave a market value to the hitherto valueless
 dead gull, thirty cents pair being of fered for the wings. The baymen at
 once turned themselves into gull-hunt- CTS, almost to the neglect of wild ducks
 and geese i1ls the Great South Bay.
 There was more money in killing gulls
 than any other birds, for q man could
 bag several hundred in day very ea-
 silly
 But the supply soon ran out, and now
 the trade in gulls' wings Is looking for
 new sources, The price for good wings
 has advanced, and they are worth from thirty to sixty cents a pair. These soft, light-colored wings of the gulls sell as dove wings, and bring the price of the latter in the market. Ninety-nine-hun dredths of the so-called dove wings worn on street hats are gulls' wings, for it would be manifest impossibility to supply doves wings in the quantities now worn upon women's hats,
 The barren island of sand and nea- dow-grass known as Jones' Beach is a natural home of the gulls, and if they are let alone they multiply there rapid ly. A few specimens of the birds were left on the beach, and they laid their eggs in the warm sand in the summer to be matched out by the sun. Gulls never sit upon their eggs as other birds, but let the sun and warm sand do the motherly act for them. Fritz collected all of the eggs he could find, and placed them in little round holes in the sand near his hut to hatch. In a week or two more than a score of little gulls were running around. A strong wire netting confined them within Q certain limited space, and also kept the old gulls from reaching them. These lat ter, however, fed the young, voraeious birds with fish, which they would drop to them from above The little gulls in this way were reared without any labor on the part of the old bayman.
 As the season advanced Fritz collect- ed more eggs from the beach until he had matched out over two hundred gulls the first year. This was a big start, and this year he expects to mar ket nearly five hundred pairs of wings. As most of the wings are from young birds, he will receive at least fifty cents a pair, and he will net a good sum and carry enough birds over for next years breeding.
 The man does not pretend to cage his birds, or to confine any more than a certain number of good breeders Jones' Beach is only small island, but the birds once bred upon it do not for sake it. They are essentially home birds and only go away in the winter to warmer places, invariably returning and breeding on the same beach. Gun l ners tacitly understand that they are not to modest Fritz's gulls on the beach, l and 1t is very rarely that he is disturbed In this way. Every morning during the l season the old bayman goes forth and collects all of the eggs on the | beach, and places them in the sand | rear his hut to hatch out. There are | many enemies to the eggs, and many are broken and eaten up before they | hatch unless protected in this way. When the birds are large enough to fly | md care for themselves they are turned | put. By this time they are attached to | he place and always look upon it as | heir home.
 In the autumn after the breeding sea- son Fritz has several weeks of great cunning. The gulls are shot by the | and their wings shipped to [ market. The stock is not reduced too | ow, however. About fifty of the best I breeders are kept in the net during | his hunting season so that they will | lot be frightened away from the island y the noise. They are not turned | oose until late in the autumn, and they | Ire sure to return the following spring When winter comes on the breeding | arm is deserted and old Fritz returns O the mainland.
 Usually the birds secure all of the ish they need for food, but the old .eeper spends a good part of his time n hauling the net around the bay. The mall fish are thrown to the gulls, and he marketable ones are shipped in ice 0 New York. In this way he makes a Iouble profit. In speaking of hisSWork