CLEVER GULL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 61, 13 September 1939, Page 7

CLEVER GULL

EXPERT FLY-CATCHER Some time ago, Captain E. V. Sanderson, president of the Forest and Bird Protection Societv found " •? at Paekakariki a red-billed gull which a boy, in defiance or in ignor ance of the law, had wounded with, a, pea rifle. The pellet had injured a wing. Captain Sanderson took the bird to his home, where it was nursed back to health and strength. Of course, the patient soon learned to recognise his guardian as a friend. The gull would wander about the house as calmly as if it had been born and reared there. Captain Sanderson says that the bird was an astonishing expert in catching blow-flies. If it was standing in the drawing room and a "blue bottle" near it, it would make a dart and a snap that never missed. This keenness of eyesight and nimbleness were also shown in another feat. The bird was very fond of cheese. If a piece of bread was held up and dropped, the gull took ho notice; it merely seemed to be bored: but if the morsel was chccsc it was neatly caught in mid-air and was quickly gobbled. Eventually the bird regained its full power of flight and rejoined others which arc regularly fed by friendly men and women along the beach at Paekakariki.