126 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



its best to preserve order among them ; and 

 I once saw a most remarkable case of this 

 myself. At one time the pair of cariamas at 

 the Zoo were kept in the great wire aviary 

 where the gulls live. Among these were, as 

 usual, some of the large, fierce, greater black- 

 backed kind, which in the spring often fought 

 and hurt each other. On one occasion I saw 

 one of these gulls, with bleeding head, run- 

 ning away from another, who had evidently 

 wounded him and meant to finish him off if 

 he could get him into a corner. 



The poor victim ran past one of the 

 cariamas, which also joined in the pursuit; but 

 it evidently soon saw how the case really stood, 

 for it quickly turned about, faced the pursuing 

 gull, and sprang at it, striking it with its feet 

 like a cock, and made it give up the chase. 



Then on another occasion I saw a pair of 

 wild wood-pigeons having a fight in one of the 

 cranes' paddocks at the Gardens ; but the 

 fight did not last long, for one of the cranes 

 the common grey European kind ran up and 

 stopped the disturbance by driving off the 

 quarrelsome pigeons in different directions. 

 This kind of crane seems especially to ap- 



