40 THE WOMBAT. 



fact, so long as yon stay to watch it — as first one gull and then 

 another bears down upon first one and then another peewit, which 

 peewit has invariably, whenever your eyes are quick enough to 

 detect it, either just found or just eaten something, this theory has 

 to be abandoned and it soon becomes plain to sense and reason 

 that the gulls are systematically and of set purpose robbing the 

 peewits. Sometimes one may see 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, too, tbe 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 a dozen times — it parts with its booty 

 to the aggressor. In the ca>es where it does not, it either, by its 

 obstinancy, tires the gull out, or — as sometimes happens — it owes 

 its impunity to the rival efforts of two or more pursuers. As a rule 

 the gulls stand at fairly wide intervals over the land, but occasionally, 

 two will be near together, and whichever of these first rises the 

 other is sure to do so too and to pursue either the peewit or its 

 fellow toiler. Great indignation is exhibited, in these circumstances, 

 by the two marauders each one of whom considers the other to be 

 an intruder upon its own rights. They assail one another in the 

 air, their course becomes deflected, and the peewit escapes — an 

 interesting and pretty illustration of the old adage that "when 

 thieves fall out honest men come by their own." 



Except in these circumstances one gull is not, as a rule, 

 interfered with by another in the pursuit of its game and, as 

 respect for each other's rights is a quality which neither these nor- — 

 as far as I have observed — any other social birds posesss, at least 

 in the matter of eating, this forbearance, I think, must be due 

 entirely to the teachings of experience — for a peewit pursued by 

 more than one gull seldom yields to either. 



Does the peewit, when thus forced to relinquish what it has 

 honestly acquired (for we will consider the worm or grub to be 

 either a consenting party or grossly in the wrong) 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 instances the latter is the case, 

 strange as this may appear — for the peewit has not, like the gulls, 

 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, and even if it were unable it should, one would 

 think, be no such difficult matter to gulp it down in the air unless 

 its size were considerable, which would only be the case occasionally. 

 One may, I think, conclude this, for otherwise the object would be 

 visible, either carried in the bill, or in its fall through the air ; and 

 this it is not. It would certainly be to the peewit's interest to 



