92 THE TERNS 



catching fish the only difference being that the bill in the latter case 

 serves to grasp instead of to pierce. 



They attack all animals trespassing on their nesting-grounds. 

 They will drive off dogs, horses, and cattle, also sheep, and I have 

 seen them pursuing a hare over the shingle stretches of Dunge- 

 ness. The large Gulls and the Crows they follow and harry 

 mercilessly. According to Howard Saunders, a flock of Arctic-terns 

 has been seen to mob and drown a hooded-crow. Their attitude 

 towards the blackheaded-gull, their frequent neighbour, is one of 

 watchful and suspicious toleration. The young of the same species 

 they attack and kill in the way above described. This may be 

 explained by the fact that the young gulls are markedly unlike their 

 parents in coloration, the result being that their identity is mistaken. 

 Moreover, the sudden emergence of a number of strange birds, to all 

 appearance from the ground, in the middle of the breeding season is in 

 itself enough to excite suspicion in the breast of any tern with a proper 

 sense of responsibility. The Waders, such as the oystercatcher and 

 the ringed-plover, which nest among the Terns, are left in peace. So 

 also are their young, probably because they are born within the 

 colony instead of invading it, like the young gulls, from outside as 

 fledglings, and perhaps also because their plumage is not con- 

 spicuously unlike that of their parents. 



The worst enemies that the Terns have are undoubtedly human 

 beings, in particular those women misguided enough to imagine that 

 their charms can be enhanced by wearing on their hats the faded and 

 dismal remains of these birds, beautiful only when alive and free. For 

 millinery purposes Terns are butchered each autumn by hundreds, 

 as soon as they cease to be effectively protected. They are all the 

 more easy to shoot because the flock, either moved by sympathy 

 or curiosity, has a habit of hovering over its dead and wounded. 



An enemy less to be feared is the Hawk tribe, from which the 

 tern singled out for pursuit seeks to escape by rising to an immense 

 height. The adult birds appear often to escape, the chief victims 



