South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-07-31
BY Garrett p. Serviss.

DN oCINlcS-
WHY a simple credulOus person,
easily imposed upon, should be called
a gull" is not clear. Perhaps the
term originated in the fact that the
bright-witted, active birds named gulls
are made to look foolish when teased
by terms, and other smaller birds that
do not look like them. But big,
intelligent dog looks foolish also when
it turns away from nagging ours
rather than lose dignity by attacking
them.
If gulls were stupid birds they
would not have spread themselves
all over the world as they have done,
taking advantage of mans neighbour
hood and of his ships and harbors.
They are familiar objects in every
great seaport, and they convoy ap
preaching vessels long before the
most enterprising pilots can get
aboard. Their conduct indicates that
they can distinguish ships from ships,
and know from afar the difference be-
tween the great liners, crowded with
passengers, from whose wasteful
cooks galleys an abundance of good
things to eat is thrown overheard, and
the lean freighters from which little
provender is to be expected.
Nobody who has ever watched from
the deck of a steamship entering or
touching at a port, the flock of well
coming gulls which quickly surrounds
il, and has noted the sharp eyes of the
birds turning watchfully as they soar
alongside or over the mastheads, or
skim the water close to the churning
screws, can think of them as other
than extremely intelligent and quick
witted.
The manner in which they fly on ap-
parently mOtionless wings, increasing
and decreasing their speed, rising and
sinking, turning and darling, as if
their movements were controlled rath-
er by will power than by force and
skill of wing, is a source of ceaseless
wonder and admiration to the on
locker
The large white gull familiar along
the Atlantic coast is the herring
gull" so called because it likes her
rings when Il can get them. although
usually il eats something else; and if
ii inhabits the precincts OF Greater
New York it becomes a thoroughly
urban bird in its eating habits, and
feeds on the rich and varied table
dhOte of the harbOr and its shores
and inlets.
Away from the metropolitan neigh
borhood the herring gull has to eXer-
else its ingenuity TO find sufficient food,
am one Of its tricks would be hard 10
match in any story Of bird intelligence.
This is it's way of getting CLAIMS out
Of their shells-I had best tell the
story in the words Of an actual observ-
er. G. Gilbert Pearson, Of the Audubon
society:
while sitting one afternoon on the
veranda Of a little hotel at Beaufort,
y. c., idly watchin~ a herring gull
slowly beating about the harDor, 1 was
surprised 10 see it suddenly fly down
on a mud-fat. grasp a clam in its bill
and. rising aloft about 40 feet, let its
burden fall The bird quickly de-
scended. seized its victim and dropped
il as before. This performance was
repeated Is times. when the gull, after
a final look at the clam. flew away,
evidently discouraged. 1t was trying
10 break the shell. but the mud did not
offer sufficient resistance. A few DAYS
later ] found gulls practicing this
habit "A hundred miles farther up the
coast. and at one place near Cape
Hatteras, the haTd-packed sands were
literally strewn with the fragments Of
freshly broken shells"
Herring gulls are often seen far
from the Atlantic coast along the
shores Of the Gulf OF Mexico. and
around the great lakes and some OF
the larger rivers. In summer many
OF them go as far north as Alaska,
out their greatest breeding places are
on the rocky islands along the coast
OF Maine. Here their rookeries are
guarded by wardens employed by the
Audubon societies. Formerly there was
a great demand for gulls feathers 10
ornament women's hats. and the con-
seQuent slaughter OF the birds was