THE NATURALIST. Seagulls Crossing the Pacific.

Otago Witness, Issue 2650, 28 December 1904, Page 68

THE NATURALIST. Seagulls Crossing the Pacific.

We are proud of our great ocean liners and the speed that they make, a speed which has made foreign countries ridiculously near, and has brought the nations close together. To the people of a hundred yeais ago the story that a • vessel could cross the bread Pacific within a month would seem- like the sheerest fancy of a romancer. Yet at that time seagulls existed, as they do at the present day, and. they made their long trips without provoking any especial comment. To-day ifc is looked 1 upon as nothing very marvellous that birds are able to fly from America to Asia and back again. But if we pause to- consider it, the feat is really something after x all. These birds are especially fond of the United States army transports, for these ships carry many men, who," denied ,the • taste for books which renders an ocean journey •• -dess tedicus, and having limited facilities for deck^sport, take to feeding- "grills as a pastime. When one of the * bigv vessels leaves ' the Golden Gate and^ passes . flic FarHllone Islands, a hundred or more brown bodies, with long, sweeping wings, leave their rest-ing-place r and take* up their flight in the wake "of 'the transport. -i "*• ' • Then some soldier who has made the trip before .says: "Here come the seagulls. We'd better feed » them -if- we want- a/q uick j passage this t^ip," and ,many soldiers in- | vade the steward's premises, and 1 gather up the wasfe bread and victuals. The "birds seem to know when they are t6"»be -fed, for they, come flying in ever narrowing circles until they are within a short distance" of the ship. Then the food begins .to fall on the -water, and the brown winged forms swoop down upon -the s waves, and seize - what bas been thrown forth. This is continued until the food is exhausted, and! then the soldiers igo below, leaving the gulls to get away with their food as they fly. They never seem to rest, these queer binds. Day after day they follow the ship, cleaving the air -with their swift wings, flying easily and without apparent effort; indeed, it seems as though they were 1 -not made to "rest. On the last trip of the transport Logan one of the gulls had its wing muscles injured in some, way, and dropped fluttering upon the deck, its wide, goose-like bill open and' strange squawks coming from its throat. A soldier spied it and took it to his bunk, where he fed it daily until it became strong again. Then he allowed it- to fly, away. But the birdl had not forgotten its benefactor. Every day it- would alight on the" deck, and allow none save this particular~*man to feed it. It followed the boat to Honolulu, to Guam, and finally to Manila./ Where it rested during -the two weeks the Logan lay in Manila I is not known; but when the vessel turned on its homeward course, bound for Nagasaki, \ the first day out found this gull, easily j distinguishable by a fleck of white on its neck, resting on the stern. As its favourite soldier did' not appear the gull graciously I allowed! the others to feed it, and! continued i its trip with the ship until the Logan passed the Farallone Islands. — San Francisco ! Chronicle. ,