EXPERT FLY CATCHER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 September 1939, Page 3

EXPERT FLY CATCHER

CLEVER RED-BILLED GULL. Some time ago, Captain E. V. Sanderson, president of the Forest and Bird Protection Society, found at Paekakariki a red-billed gull which a boy, in defiance or in ignorance 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” flew near it, it would make a dart and 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 no notice; it merely seemed to be bored; but if the morsel was cheese, it was neatly caught in mid-air and was quickly gobbled. Eventually the bird regained its full power of flight and rejoined others which are regularly fed by friendly men and women along the beach of Paekakariki.