134 Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland, 



one of them make a mistake, that is, it will set out towards a 

 Peewit, evidently under the impression that the latter has 

 found something, but, all at once stop, as having discovered 

 its error, and continue to watch and wait. Sometimes also, 

 the attack or approach is so swift and silent that the Peewit, 

 taken by surprise, flies hurriedly up, leaving its harvest on 

 the ground, for the Gull at once to dispose of. As a rule, 

 however, the Peewit is chased, and, as a rule, also — I should say 

 at least four out of every half dozen times — it parts with what 

 it has to the aggressor. In the cases where it does not, it 

 either, by its obstinacy, tires the Gull out, or (here is another 

 close parallel) owes its impunity to the rival efforts of two or 

 more pursuers. For the most part, the Gulls stand at fairly 

 wide intervals, over the land, but occasionally, two will be 

 near together, and then, whichever of these first rises, the other 

 will be sure to do so too, and to pursue either it or the Peewit. 

 Great indignation is exhibited, in these circumstances, by both 

 the marauders, each one of whom considers the other to be a 

 trespasser upon his own rights. They assail one another in 

 the air, their course becomes deflected and the Peewit escapes, 

 an interesting and pretty illustration of the homely saying that 

 ' When thieves fall out, honest men come by their own.' 

 (Though perhaps the obscure subject of the strife might here 

 demur). 



Does the Peewit, when thus forced to relinquish what it 

 has honestly and industriously acquired, merely drop it out 

 of its beak, or is it made actually to disgorge it, as are Gulls 

 themselves, in similar circumstances, by the Skuas ? To 

 make this out, through the glasses, is difficult, if not impossible, 

 but it seems likely that in the majority of cases the latter is 

 what occurs, strange as this may appear, for the Peewit has 

 not, like the Gull tribe, the natural habit of disgorging its 

 food. I can, however, see no reason why it should not as a 

 rule swallow what it finds before the Gull is upon it ... . On 

 the other hand, it is possible that the Gull's approach — com- 

 mencing from the first indication of success on the part of its 

 quarry — may be so swift that the latter has rarely time to 

 swallow, on the ground, and finds it difficult to do so during 

 flight. If when the Peewit had once swallowed, it could be 

 made to disgorge, we could better understand that curious 

 change of intention which the Gull sometimes exhibits in 

 the very midst of flying down upon it. The precise manner, 

 therefore, in which the Peewit is robbed may be as open to doubt 

 as it is in some other (higher) instances where the main fact is 

 not less certain. A more interesting point is involved in the 

 question of what is the precise mental attitude of the two 

 birds towards one another. It might be thought that hostility, 

 pure and simple, was the only possible one in such a case as 



Naturalist, 



