SEAGULLS HELP FARMERS.
Seagulls are usually regarded as fisher-birds, but now and again they penetrate inland and feed on almost anything that comes in their way (remarks a contributor to “Smith’s Weekly,” Sydney). During a caterpillar plague at Tilba Tilba (N.S.W.), thousands of gulls appeared in the paddocks, and gorged day after day on the pest. Many of the farms in the locality were saved by the birds destroying the crawling hordes before they could reach the crops. The gulls walked and fluttered about the ground until their crops were full, and then retired to a swamp or waterhole. When the caterpillars had disappeared the birds left. Similarly, in many districts of New Zealand, seagulls have waged war on insects and grubs that worry farmers.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/FORBI19340401.2.11
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Forest and Bird, Issue 32, 1 April 1934, Page 10
Word count
Tapeke kupu
125SEAGULLS HELP FARMERS. Forest and Bird, Issue 32, 1 April 1934, Page 10
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
For material that is still in copyright, Forest & Bird have made it available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0). This periodical is not available for commercial use without the consent of Forest & Bird. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this magazine please refer to our copyright guide.
Forest & Bird has made best efforts to contact all third-party copyright holders. If you are the rights holder of any material published in Forest & Bird's magazine and would like to discuss this, please contact Forest & Bird at editor@forestandbird.org.nz
Log in