512 Short Communicatwns : — 



peculiar cry, which always means that he is quite ready for a 

 meal. Indeed, he has a most voracious appetite, and the 

 capacity of his throat is truly astonishing : he has repeatedly 

 swallowed, quite whole, with bill, claws, and feathers, various 

 small birds which had been shot and thrown to him. Mice 

 or other small quadrupeds appear equally to suit his taste ; 

 and, though he has no objection to butcher's meat, he seems 

 rather to prefer small animals, notwithstanding the hair, fea- 

 thers, &c., which sometimes give him not a little trouble to 

 dispose of satisfactorily. The way in which he remedies this 

 difficulty suggested itself the first time a bird was given him : 

 I believe it was a skylark. After some ineffectual efforts to 

 swallow it, he paused for a moment; and then, as if suddenly 

 recollecting something, he ran off at full speed to a pan of 

 water, shook the bird about in it until well soaked, and imme- 

 diately gulped it down without farther trouble. Since that 

 time, he invariably has recourse to the same expedient 'in 

 similar cases, however distant he may be from the pan when 

 any difficulty arises. He once, by this means, managed to 

 swallow the head of a fowl ; bill, bones, feathers, and all. 

 He does not appear particularly to prefer fish, which we may 

 suppose his more natural food ; though he will eat it plenti- 

 fully when hungry ; and he is generally by no means nice in 

 his diet, having lately eaten, with apparent pleasure, a putrid 

 weasel, taking, however, especial care that it should not go 

 down " tail foremost." I have some reason to believe that 

 he casts up the bones, fur, and feathers of what he swallows, 

 in the manner of the owls, &c. ; as I have occasionally found 

 a little bunch of very white bones, mixed with fur, near his 

 sleeping-place. Whether or not this bird would have had 

 any inclination to feast on his winged neighbours, had they 

 never been given him when dead, I cannot say ; but I have 

 frequently observed him not only earnestly watching the 

 small birds as they were hopping near him, but actually 

 pursuing them for some distance : and, in one instance, almost 

 successfully, for a chaffinch had nearly fallen a victim to his 

 predatorial propensity, after he had chased it a considerable 

 way. Altogether, he is an amusing fellow ; but, as he has 

 shown no small inclination to mischief, in plucking off the 

 flowers, pulling up the labels, emptying the flower-pots, and 

 scattering the mould over the walks, his fate is somewhat 

 doubtful : and I fear it is more than probable that his life 

 will have to pay the forfeit of his crimes. — S. K. Sudbury ^ 

 S?ifolk [April, 1834]. 



An Attack of a large Sea Gull, in the Manner of a Species 

 of rapacious Bird, upon a Kittiwake Gull. — As the following 



