12 THE BIRD WATCHER 
of instances—flies off without any further attempt 
to secure it, and I have then seen the tern sweep back, 
and, plunging down, retake possession of its booty. 
Whether, in such cases, the fish was designedly re- 
linquished, in order to be secured again, I cannot say, 
but here, at any rate, we see another way in which the 
parasite might come to be outwitted by the more 
intelligent of its vaches a lait. 
These competitions between skua and tern, both of 
them birds of such swift and graceful flight, are very 
interesting to watch. The skua, in the midst of the 
chase, will frequently sweep away, as if it had aban- 
doned all hope, and then return in a wide circling 
rush, at the end of which there may be a sudden up- 
ward shoot, for the tern generally seeks to elude its 
pursuer by rising higher into the air. Often—and 
again this is just as with the peewit and gull—a pair of 
skuas will give chase to the same tern, and then one 
may see the slender, shining bird quite overshadowed 
by the two evil figures, as, pressing upon either side, 
they rise or sink towards it, often almost covering it 
up with their broad and dusky pinions. Twin evil 
geniuses they look like, seeking to corrupt a soul, or 
else dark shadows that this soul itself has summoned 
up, and that attend it, hardly now to be shaken off : 
Da hab’ ich viel blasse Leichen 
Beschworen mit Wortesmacht. 
Sie wollen, nun, nicht mehr weichen 
Zurtick in die alte Nacht. 
For imagination can easily multiply the two into 
