REPORT OF THE CLUB'S DELEGATE. 393
there are some dark markings on the head. It would be interesting to know
whence these birds come, and why they are found upon the river in this mild,
open weather It may be that we are on the eve of a periodical visitation, if,
indeed, it has not already begun." * * * * " The attachment
of the lower animals to man, is, in very many cases, a selfish one ; and it
may be that the previous feeding of the gulls has had not a little to do with
their return now. That some birds have memory for places is proved in
many ways—notably by the feats of homing pigeons, which are due, not, as
was formerly supposed, to a mysterious faculty for finding their way; but to
an acquired knowledge of the route to be traversed. The gulls having
travelled from the coast of the Thames and back, it would not be a difficult
matter for them to repeat the journey, especially if there were the stimulative
remembrance of the manner in which they were treated on a former visit.
They are eminently gregarious, and the flight up the river of a few, whether
impelled by faint memories of good times gone by, or merely exploring, would
be a signal for others to follow. Then there is another factor to be taken
into account : the facility with which these birds accommodate themselves to
widely different situations. They are as much at home searching for food
in the ploughed fields of Norfolk, in the breeding season, as they are along
the sandy or muddy flats of the coast in the Winter. And this necessarily
argues considerable adaptability in the matter of diet. The stomachs of
some that have been examined have contained grain and other vegetable
matter. One excellent observer saw some of them 'dashing round lofty elms,
catching cockchafers,' another records their fondness for moths, and a third
writes of them, when pressed by hunger, as 'turning themselves into
swallows and trying to catch the mayfly and the daddy longlegs.' Birds
which are practically omnivorous, as these gulls are, will readily pick up a
living where those of more restricted tastes would starve. For them the
flotsam and jetsam of a great river, with miles of thickly-populated banks,
must offer a fair food supply, even though the alms of sympathetic
Londoners should fail. If there were breeding-places as near to London as
there are to Glasgow, we might expect that within a little time, these birds
would be as common on the Thames as they are on the Clyde At any rate,
their visit at this time,, when one would think food in plenty might be had for
the searching on the coast, is exceedingly interesting."]
REPORT OF THE CLUB'S DELEGATE AT
THE MEETING OF THE CORRESPONDING
SOCIETIES' COMMITTEE OF THE BRITISH
ASSOCIATION AT BRISTOL, SEPTEMBER,
1898.
[Read, December 17th, I898]
THE Conference was held at the University College, Bristol,
on September 8th and 13th. The proceedings at the first
meeting were opened by our distinguished Honorary Member,
Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., who introduced the subject of Coast
Erosion. All persons, he said, were interested in the scenery of