AN OLD BIRD.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 27 August 1919, Page 4

AN OLD BIRD.

Mrs L. Boss, of North Road, Papaiiui, near Christchurch, has kept a sea-gull in captivity for 1-1 years (says Mr Drummoud, the well-kuown naturalist). It is allowed; to ramble through the house, and is friendly with the cats, and will feed with them from the same plate, but when they have something it likes it snatches the food from them. When it finds one of the i cats has caught a mouse or a sparrow, it snatches the prey, takes it to its basin, washes it, and swallows it whole; in -the case of a sparrow after some of the feathers have been pulled; off. Although it is afraid of" dogs, it finds pleasure in the company of a horse. : lt follows Mis liot's when she digs in the. garden, and it picks worms out of the soil, but prefers the grass grub. It is fed on boiled liver, but likes milk and raw meat generally. It often carj lies about pieces of sticks and in the spring it makes nests of rubbish. When Mr Ross is preparing foul feed it often tries to make the nests round his feet. Gulls that fly overhead attract it. It calls to them and sometimes one comes down to it, but if anything approaches the stranger immediately departs.