62 



KEARTONS' NATURE PICTURES 



N 



TERXS AT HOME. 



Whilst at Ravenglass I noticed that if 

 a young black-headed gull happened 

 to stray from the sand dunes where it 

 had been bred on to the ground occu- 

 pied by the Terns, it was instantly 

 attacked in the most savage and per- 

 sistent manner. Again and again a 

 bird would swoop from an altitude of 

 twenty or thirty feet, strike the un- 

 fortunate chick on the head, and roll 

 it over and over until it retreated to 



its own quarters, and took shelter 

 beneath a friendly bunch of nettles, 

 or tuft of coarse grass. One day I was 

 making some remark upon the vicious- 

 ness of sea swallows to young Farren, 

 the boatman who assists his aged 

 father to ferry visitors from the village 

 of Ravenglass over to the gullery, when 

 he told me of an extraordinary in- 

 cident he once witnessed. A couple 

 of partridges which innocently strayed, 

 w r ith their brood of young ones, amidst 

 the Common Terns were instantly 

 attacked, and all slain outright with 

 the exception of one of the parent 

 birds. 



When the breeding ground of a large 

 colony of these birds is visited they all 

 rise into the air, and, with loud, sharp 

 notes that sound like " pirre," fly over- 

 head, sometimes performing the most 

 wonderful aerial evolutions. If the in- 

 truder should keep still, however, for a 

 little while, they will all, with exception 

 of the birds owning nests within a few 

 yards of him, settle down again to their 

 duties. 



