SEA GULLS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 151, 23 December 1921, Page 19

SEA GULLS

WHY THEY FOLLOW THE SHIP. We'ro the seagulls who follow the 6hips far out to sea. Any day you may ccc us on the wharf sheds, waiting for a boat to start. The passengers on board lean ovo/- tho rail to watch us. ' "What clumsy legs they have," cays one. "Look like stuffed birds," says another. "Wait till you see them fly," 3aya a third who knows us betier than the rest. Wo hear tho engines throb and beat, the siren oalls, the gangway is lifted, and "slowly the boat glides out aoross the water. Thoro —now she is well on her way. Yellow Boak flaps his wings and is after her. and one by one wo follow. Ail boats travel slowly, some moro slowly than others, but by long praotioe we have learned to follow them ailSometimes the young gullß race ahead and leave- the): ship far behind, but that is foolish, for the man in the white cap throws out food to us, and we must bo there to watoh for it «6 it floats out on the -water behind the boat. So. easily we fly, over tho white path of foam 'which every ship loaves behind her. We hover with wings quite still, we flap them lazily and cross from side to side, w» soar high up above the ship c*r rest upon the water. It is> all ohild's play to J us. . Thirty, forty, fifty, sometimes « ton- ] dred of us follow a large boat and the j passengers crowd together in the stern to watch us. There are no- rude re- | marks about Our legs now, for j>te stretch them straight out underneath our tails whoD we fly. "How graceful they are," says one. "See. their grey wing* .tipped with blaok," says another. £ 'Ho w clevorly thoy light upon the waterjr cries a third. By and by a piece of driftwood comes floating by and throe,- four, five of usl peroh on that/ and go off on a voyage all our\own, but we must not :U1 desert the ship, for who would amuse \he passengers then ! —and the cook—it's a pity his food should all be wasted.