LETTER XIII. 103 



the law ! " This ' 



continues till the Heron alights or is driven'* 



far inland, or till the Gulls get tired of the sport. 1 



I am very sorry to hear of the fate of the Cormorant's egg. 

 I put it into too frail a box, and the stamping in the post office 

 must have broken it. I have forwarded another by a private 

 hand, but it is not such a fine specimen, as it has been a little 

 scraped. The natural colour of the Cormorant's egg seems to be 

 a sea-green, but they have a rough coating of a dirty white 

 substance. This was very remarkable upon the egg I sent you 

 first. I shot the hen and then took the egg, which was the only 

 one in the nest. Upon dissecting the bird, I feund another egg 

 just ready for laying of a beautiful pure green colour, with no 

 white stains on it. 



1 Edward, the Aberdeenshire naturalist, gives an animated description of a 

 successful attack by a Carrion Crow and two Hoodies upon a Heron, for the pur- 

 pose of making him disgorge the food he was taking to his family (Life of a 

 Scotch Naturalist, Chap. XIII. p. 272). Perhaps the Gulls also attack him with 

 the object of plunder. What with the fear of highway robbers by land and 

 pirates by sea, it must be a difficult matter for the poor Heron to know which way 

 to take ? H. D. G t 



