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Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 122, 21 February 1928, Page 5

Now that the streams tiro so low it is a common sight to see black-backed seagulls and mollyliawks ranging the river beds in search of foods. These birds fly low over the water, and their sharp eves quickly detect eels or /.rout in a dead or dying condition. These they seize with their powerful beaks and devour (states the ''Taranaki News''), llecently a black-bucked gull was observed in the Waiwakaiho river-bed tackling an eel. The bird swooped into the shallow water, dragged out an eel over a foot in length and flew to the top of a boulder in midstream. Here the gull proceeded to kill its capture by beating it against the stone. Several times tho cel wriggled free and slid back into the water, but the bird, with lightning stroke, retrieved its prey. Eventually tho eel was dispatched, tossed into the air, caught and swallowed. Judging by the number of gulls to bo r et with on the long, shallow stretches of the river beds, it would seem that considerable numbers of both eels and trout are dying.