114 THE OCEAN. 



a predatory excursion, returns to his partner, with 

 five or six herrings in his gorge ; these she very 

 complacently pulls out one by one, with much ad- 

 dress. Marten says that they frequently rob each 

 other, and that one which had pillaged a nest, artfully 

 flew out towards the sea with the spoil, and returned 

 again, as if it had gathered the stuff from a different 

 quarter. The owner, though at a distance from his 

 nest, had observed the robbery, and waited the re- 

 turn of the thief, which he attacked with the utmost 

 fury. "This bloody battle," adds the narrator, 

 "was fought above our heads, and proved fatal to 

 the thief, who fell dead' so near our boat, that our 

 men took him up, and presently dressed and ate 

 him." 



