1 50 MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



tactics of a dog, or any other hunting animal, which 

 makes a dash forward, and then stops suddenly to 

 see or hear what quarry has been disturbed. The 

 birds, however, must trust to their ears alone, because 

 the worms which they discover are evidently out of 

 sight, since they have to dig them out. Besides, they 

 use the same tactics in discovering cockchafer-grubs, 

 which never come to the surface at all, until the bird 

 drags them out. 



THE GULL'S VICTIM. 



And the plovers manage well enough with their 

 ears alone; for wherever you see as you may see 

 every day in autumn on the east coast when the 

 ploughs are idle a number of plovers and gulls on 

 the ground together, you may be sure that the plovers 

 are finding dinners for themselves and the gulls too. 

 There is no charity in the matter, however. The 

 stress of the struggle for existence forbids wild 

 creatures to exhibit this virtue towards each other ; 

 and on the gull's part it is sheer blackmail and piracy 

 which leads him to seek the plover's company. Peep 

 through the hedge and watch them. There are ten 

 times as many peewits as gulls ; and while the former 

 are constantly moving a yard or two in different 

 directions, each gull sits upright and motionless, 

 watching the plovers immediately around. 



THE PIRATE'S SUCCESS. 



Suddenly, with a menacing scream, the gull takes 

 wing. He has seen a plover stoop quickly to extract 

 a worm, and just as it is pulled out of the ground he 



