FRAGMENTS FROM THE SEASHORE. 237 



arch robber heeds not their clamour, however, 

 but cahiily swallows his victim whole, and flies 

 away. Robert Darling, one of the watchers 

 engaged to protect the birds, told me that he 

 had seen a lesser black-back swallow a young 

 tern that could actually fly. 



Incredible as this statement may appear, I 

 can readily believe it, because I have watched his 

 relative, the herring gull (a bird of about equal 

 size and infamous character), gulp down a young 

 peewit so well grown that it nearly choked its 

 captor. 



Although not birds of overflowing devotion, 

 individual lesser black-backed gulls sometimes 

 show extraordinary courage and pugnacity in 

 the defence of their eggs and chicks. One of 

 the keepers told me that during his long experi- 

 ence on the Fames he had been twice attacked 

 by members of the species, having his cap taken 

 off on one occasion, and his head so forcibly struck 

 by the formidable bill of the aggressor on another 

 as to render it sore for days afterwards. 



The bravery of individuals in the feathered 

 world is sometimes quite astonishing. Even the 

 gentle, defenceless terns will occasionally summon 

 sufficient courage to attack vigorously human 

 beings intruding either by accident or design upon 

 the privacy of _^their breeding quarters. One day, 

 whilst wandering along the beach of a small 



