The young seagull's parents try to make him leave his ledge by not giving him food. They escalated his hunger due to which he tried to leave the ledge so that he can search some food for himself. He couldn't fly because he was afraid of flying but the seagull's parents didn't give him food so that he can overcome his fear of flight and can fly in search of food.
A word that fills in the blank well is sarcastic Sarcasm is a type of irony, called verbal irony, that makes statements about a character that are obviously not true, and are included to add humor to the novel.
