276 
LARIDiE. 
the character of the terns. When one is killed, or wounded, all 
within view of the poor victim fly instantly towards it, and bewail 
its fate in the most piteous terms. The quickness with which 
they perceive its fall is surprising. They dart down until almost 
touching it, and, observing that it cannot rise, keep circling over 
it with the greatest vociferation ; in this act the three species 
join, making common cause, no matter which kind is victim. 
This amiable trait, as already mentioned of the gannet, at Ailsa, 
is sometimes taken advantage of at the Mew Island, for the 
destruction of the terns, and dead birds are thrown into the air 
to lure within shot the survivors, otherwise keeping out of range. 
A habit which Audubon remarked of the arctic tern, met with 
by him at several of its breeding-haunts on the coast of North 
America, is equally applicable to the common and roseate species, 
and probably to others : — that, “ whenever one was wounded so 
slightly as to be able to make off, it was lost to us, and the rest 
followed it” (vol. iii. p. 368). 
I have somewhere read that the lower animals are altogether 
devoid of that generous feeling for their neighbours in distress, 
which characterizes the amiable of our own species, and Mr. Jesse, 
in his popular f Gleanings in Natural History/ states that in his 
opinion, friendship for each other is peculiar to the rook. But 
in addition to the terns and gannet, the redshank may be named. 
The gulls, too, exhibit the same feeling, and if one falls, all the 
species — the whole tribe of gulls — enact a similar part to that 
narrated of the terns, call it affection or what we will : curiosity 
at all events it cannot be on the part of the terns at the Mew 
Island, where they unfortunately have too frequent experience 
in being fired at for that to be the cause. Audubon (vol. iii. 
p. 107) mentions a similar trait displayed by the puffin, which 
will be found noted at p. 234 of the present volume. With 
respect to the deer , however, Shakespeare did not avail himself of 
the poet's license, but was strictly correct in attributing to that 
animal a character of the opposite nature, in his lines upon the 
wounded stag : — 
“ Anon, a careless herd, 
Full of the pasture, jumps along by him, 
