218 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [caap. xxvit 
beating against the wind in search of any prey, and darting fear- 
lessly into the very foam of the breakers to obtain it, or floating 
as buoyantly as corks at a respectful distance from the larger 
gulls, who may be engaged in tearing to pieces any cast up car- 
cass, and being content to catch at the smaller morsels which 
are detached unperceived by the rightful owners of the prize. 
I was much amused the other day by the proceedings of a pair 
of the black-toed gull, or boatswain. These two birds were sit- 
ting quietly on an elevated ridge of sand, near which a number 
of other gulls of different kinds were fishing and hovering about 
in search of what the waves might cast up. Every bird, indeed, 
was busy and employed, excepting these two black robbers, who 
seemed to be quietly resting, quite unconcerned. When, how- 
ever, a gull had picked up a prize, these birds seemed instinctively 
to know it, and darting off with the rapidity of a hawk (which 
bird they much resemble in their manner of flight), they attacked 
the unfortunate gull in the air, and, in spite of his screams and 
attempts to escape, they pursued and beat him till he disgorged 
the fish or whatever he had swallowed. when one of them darted 
down and caught the substance before 1t couiu reach the water. 
The two then returned quietly back to their sand-bank, where 
they waited patiently to repeat the robbery, should an opportunity 
occur. As the flock of gulls moved on with the flow of the tide 
the boatswains moved on also, hovering on their flank like a pair 
of plundering freebooters. I observed that in chasing a gull 
they seemed perfectly to understand each other as to who should 
get the spoil; and in their attacks on the largest gulls (against 
whom they waged the most fearless warfare), they evidently 
acted so as to aid each other. If another pair of boatswains 
intruded on their hunting-ground, they immediately seemed to 
send them farther off, not so much by actual battle as by a noisy 
and screaming argument, which they continued most vigorously 
“ill the new comers left the neighbourhood. 
T never saw these birds hunt for their own living in any other 
way than by robbing the other gulls. Though not nearly so 
large as some of the birds which they attack, their hawk-like 
swoops and great courage seem to enable them to fight their way 
most successfully. They are neatly and powerfully made ; their 
