l82 ANIMALS OF LAND AND SEA 



chiefly the grafters and the food stealers. The enemies of the 

 larger creatures, and the sharks and whales, are the much 

 smaller blood sucking or internal parasites which, though much 

 less conspicuous, are very numerous and just as dangerous. 



But the whales and seals have one enemy that makes lions, 

 wolves and tigers look by contrast almost as gentle as pet dogs 

 and pussy cats, and that is the killer whale. This ferocious 

 animal, with an abundance of large teeth, is common in the 

 artic and antarctic seas, and hunts in packs. Its appearance 

 is more sinister than that of any fish, no matter how great 

 the size, except, perhaps, the savage barracuda. I have seen 

 it at close range in Bering Sea and do not care to meet with it 

 again. 



The birds of the sea shores call for brief enumeration. The 

 gulls, very numerous in northern regions, are chiefly scaven- 

 gers, feeding upon whatever is cast up on the beaches or they 

 are able to find upon the flats when the tide is out; ravens and 

 crows compete with them along the shores, but are never very 

 numerous, and are very much less agile on the wing; both 

 these two last prefer to consume their booty in the woods, 

 and often carry shells, star-fish and urchins for some distance 

 inland. Terns and skimmers eat crustaceans and small fish. 

 Fish and sometimes squid form the diet of the cormorants, 

 pelicans, boobies, frigate-birds, tropic-birds and gannets. The 

 reef and night herons catch fish and various of the larger 

 crustaceans, while the very numerous shore birds eat crus- 

 taceans, aquatic insects, marine worms, and small molluscs which 

 they mostly catch along the water's edge or on the rocks and 

 beaches, but some, hke the phalaropes, also on the surface of 

 the sea. Interesting, but relatively unimportant and not 

 numerous in species, are the fish-consuming hawks, eagles, 

 kites and vultures. The osprey is known to almost every one; 

 so is the bald eagle who often robs him of his prey as the 

 parasitic skuas and jaegers do the gulls and terns. In the 

 Aleutian Islands this eagle is one of the most abundant land 

 birds along the shores, and is much easier to shoot than the 



