32 THE BIRD WATCHER 
and darted about, re@@Mbled, or at least made me 
think of an angry swarm of wasps or hornets ; but 
how different is the anger of insects to that of any 
other sort of animal! Though so much smaller, they 
attack without any hesitation or mistrust as to the 
result whatever. A hornet or an ant threatening 
merely when its nest was attacked seems an absurdity, 
whilst in a creature many times their size it is the 
idea of courage only that is presented to us. 
Yet it was not all threatening with these terns, for 
as the excitement and hubbub increased several of 
them attacked me, though only with missile weapons. 
To be explicit, they excreted upon me, as they swept 
down, in such an irate ‘‘ Take that !” sort of manner 
and with such precision of aim, that the intention was 
quite evident. This habit I had heard of, though not 
felt, before, for a south coast fisherman told me that 
he once had a dog which had developed a strong liking 
for tern’s eggs, to gratify which he used to make ege- 
hunting and feasting expeditions along a line of beach 
where they lived, from which he would return in a 
most unseemly plight, owing to the birds having 
“dunged” him. I did not doubt this account at the 
time, and I have now this interesting confirmation of 
it, but though I myself walked amongst these southern 
terns and often took the young ones up in my hand, 
they never vented their displeasure on me in this par- 
ticular way, nor were such swoops and threatenings as 
they made of so pronounced and violent a character. 
They mobbed a hare, however, in a much more deter- 
