114 TJ1E OCEAN. 



a predatory excursion, returns to his partner, with 

 five or six herrings in his gorge ; these she very 

 complacently pulls out one by one, with much ad- 

 dress. Marten says that they frequently rob each 

 other, and that one which had pillaged a nest, artfully 

 flew out towards the sea with the spoil, and returned 

 again, as if it had gathered the stuff from a different 

 quarter. The owner, though at a distance from his 

 nest, had observed the robbery, and waited the re- 

 turn of the thief, which he attacked with the utmost 

 fury. "This bloody battle," adds the narrator, 

 " was fought above our heads, and proved fatal to 

 the thief, who fell dead so near our boat, that our 

 men took him up, and presently dressed and ate 

 him." 



