120 A PIRATE RAID. 
conspicuous blob of white on the dark, up- 
turned loam. And suddenly the air was full 
of these dainty gulls, floating, drifting, beating, 
veering, sweeping. 
Once they were down, though, movement 
and sound ceased. They might have been a 
scattered group of chalk lumps—they were 
quite as still. 
And after a bit, after a period of strained 
watching, the other birds began to move, 
began to pursue their ‘lawful vocations.’ 
Nothing happened thereafter for a long time, 
until a peewit caught a worm. Instantly 
then, and with no warning, two of the nearest 
gulls flung themselves upon the hapless lap- 
wing. ‘There was a moment of frantic rush, a 
whistle of wings, a second or two of fine wing- 
play, and the peewit was beating to another 
part of the field, leaving half-a-dozen of these 
sea imps to fight over the worm he had been 
forced to drop. 
Again and again this happened, till the 
disgusted peewits fled the place, and the 
gulls took to drifting about or settling and 
picking up what they could without them. 
The cock-pheasant crowed and flapped his 
wings vaingloriously; but he, too, removed 
at last, slowly and with dignity. The hen- 
pheasant frankly got her chicks to cover 
