Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1910 — TAME SEA GULLS. [ARTICLE]

TAME SEA GULLS.

Caught Young ud Kept ' Around Houae, They Have Never Left It. I have had a. pair of tame gulls for the last five years, a writer in the Field says. I got them from Seariff Island when they were about three months old and had their wings cut. For about two years they used to run about with the fowls and would eat anything in the way of meat, bread and cakes. I was advised to put them into the garden to eat the slugs, but I found they were fonder of strawberries and so removed them. They are not a bit afraid of dogs or cats. When

their wings were -#ell grows I let them fly to sea (which is only about five minutes from my home). They always came back about our meal hours. I called them Paddy and Polly. Paddv is afraid of nothing-; he comes into the dining room and walks around the table, taking food from everyone, and one day he had the boldness to turn two cats from their saucer of bread and milk and finished the contents himself. Another day we were having tea outside the hall door when he flew on to the table and helped himself to bread and but ter. If there is no one In the front of the house they fly around to the back and tap at one of the kitchen windows to be fed. They go away sometimes for three or four weeks in the autumn during the mackerel fishing season, and I expect they get food enough at the fishing curing station, about a mile away. Sometimes they have brought young ones with them on their return, but the latter never get very tame and generally go away when they have acquired their full plumage.