THE WORLD'S 



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enemy. The divers are, according to \Vulilengreii, mo re "imper- 

 illed from his attacks than those sea-birds which do not plunge, 

 for the latter rise into the air as soon as their piercing eye espies 

 the universally dreaded tyrant, and thus escape ; while the for- 

 mer, blindly trusting to the element in which they are capable of 

 finding a temporary refuge, allow him to approach, and then sud- 

 denly diving, fancy themselves in safety, while the eagle is only 

 waiting for the moment of their re-appearance to repeat his at- 

 tack. Twice or thrice they may possibly escape his claws by a 



ARCTIC PTARMIGAN. 



rapid plunge, but when for the fourth time they rise out of the 

 water, and remain but one instant above the surface, that instant 

 seals their doom. The sea eagle is equally formidable to the 

 denizens of the ocean, but sometimes too great a confidence in his 

 strength leads to his destruction, for Kittlitz was informed by the 

 inhabitants of Kamschatka that, pouncing upon a dolphin, he is 

 not infrequently dragged down into the water by the diving ceta- 

 cean in whose skin his talons remain fixed. 



Sea gulls of the Arctic regions are as rapacious as sea eagles, 

 though their carnivorous appetite does not feast itself on such a 



