JOURNAL OK THE WILD BIRD JXVESTIGATION" SOCIETY. 



was interru]5iecl, whereupon il shook the 

 bread out. Some water and milk, however, 

 seemed to have been swallowed. On the follow- 

 ing day the bird appeared to have impro\-ed 

 a little. It seemed to try to take the food, 

 iind swallowed the bread more naturally, it 

 was able to lift its head a little, bin succumbed 

 later in the dav. 



\\'hen the injur\- was examined, the wound 

 was foimd to be lin^', and was closed by a 

 I'loi of blood and sand. When the skin was 

 removed it was seen that one of the Stoat's 

 teeth had pentrated the skull abcn-e, while its 

 lower jaw had crushed in the back of the skull 

 near the left ear. .Much bleeding" had 

 occurred; the blood was collected amon"' the 



The adult Terns were mobbing the Stoats, 

 but these marauders did not seem to appre- 

 ciate the fact. The instinct of the Tern which 

 forces it to mob an animal seems a little 

 luireasoning. For example, a \oung Black- 

 headed (iidl, whenex'er il tried to walk', 

 toppled head o\er heels. It was weak and 

 rested between its efforts ; it lUtered no crv 

 so far as coidd be heard. A fiiick of Terns 

 and Black'-headed Gulls were swooping down 

 at it, as if the_\' would peck it; one or two 

 came to the ground near it, they seemed to 

 be afraid of the unfortunate chick. It looks 

 as if the unwonted movements of one of tiieir 

 own kind frightened them. A Stock-Dove 

 nesting in one of the rabbit-holes is mobbed. 



« 

 X 



Fig. .'). — Track of Stoat shown bv the loe-inarks. 



muscles of the neck, over the skull aiul round 

 the base of the beak. There was blood in the 

 cerebellum, but there did not ajipear tt) have 

 been much brain tissue destroyed. 



If the Stoat in biting the bird does not 

 injure the brain it is possible that the Tern 

 mav survive the attack. Digestion of what 

 food happened to be in the .stomach will go 

 on while the injured bird pines away, and the 

 stomach of the dead bird may therefore be 

 emptv. Xo doubt starvation will tend to 

 hasten exhaustion. 



It seems that it is to the Stoat's activities 

 that man\ of the deaths of the young Terns 

 are due. These birds wnll be an easy prey. 

 There are rabbits on the links, and se\-eral 

 carcases were met with. 



It is surrounded and forced to the ground In- 

 the noisy crowd. This treatment is surelv 

 not in return for some injur\- done bv the 

 Do\e. 



The track cjf the Stoat shows the points of 

 the feet in groups, separated from each other 

 bv a greater or less interval. The points that 

 compose the group are sometimes close to- 

 gether, at another time they ma\' be welJ 

 separated. It seems that in the latter case 

 the animal was travelling at a greater speed. 

 While in the first case the distance between 

 the groups was 21 inches, in the second it 

 was as much as 30 inches or 3 feet. In the 

 diagram the number of toe marks is not 

 shown deiinitel}', attention was not directed to 

 this point. 



