68 BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



her away, and the third Crow broke open 

 the three large eggs, and the birds secured 

 their meal. 



The Herring Gull itself is no mean 

 robber, and I knew a case where one 

 tried to take a Duckling. It kept swoop- 

 ing down towards the baby birds, and each 

 time the mother Duck jumped at it and 

 tried to drive it away. At last, however, 

 it succeeded in taking one of the young 

 birds and carried it away in its beak ; but 

 before it had gone many yards a Hooded 

 Crow, which had been watching the per- 

 formance, swooped down upon the Gull 

 and tried to make it drop its captive. 

 The Gull flew on as fast as possible, 

 but the angry Crow followed faster, and 

 catching it up, made a grab at the Gull's 

 tail and succeeded in pulling out a feather ! 

 This had the effect of making the Gull 

 drop the Duckling, and the Crow went 

 back and picked it up. 



Two days after the Crow stole the 



