382 
LARIDiE. 
bills, they secure by running backwards, thus bringing the whole 
weight of their bodies to bear against it. A very correct ob- 
server, who has often witnessed the banquets on dead horses 
here, reports how the various guests sat or rather stood at meat, 
and deported themselves the one towards the other. The raven, 
carrion crow, and grey crow, fed at the same time in company 
with dogs, though quarrelling occasionally with the little ones. 
The gulls — great black-backed and herring — never ate in the 
society of the dogs, but walked off on their approach to a little 
distance, with their necks stiffly borne, marking their displeasure; — 
perhaps at such low company ; mere walkers of the earth. The 
two species of gull and three of Corvida partook of the feast con- 
tentedly together. All this was a matter of almost daily occurrence. 
The great black-backed and herring gulls sometimes pursue 
individuals of their own species, to make them deliver up choice 
food too large to be immediately swallowed. They occasionally 
give each other severe chases, each trying to keep uppermost. 
If the first drop the food, this is picked up by the second, which 
in its turn becomes the pursued. But a most impudent pro- 
ceeding witnessed here was a black-backed gull taking a fluke 
( Platessa flesus) from a cormorant, when in the act of swallowing 
it. The cormorant, which was on the water, endeavoured but in 
vain (owing to its breadth), to swallow the fish, before the gull 
relieved it of the booty. He rose upright in the water, and 
made a fierce snap with his bill at the gull as the latter went 
off with his prey. This species had often before been seen 
making such attempts, but always unsuccessfully, owing to the 
cormorants diving. Strangford Lough . — Here the black-backed 
gull has been seen more than once to strike down a wigeon from 
a flock. Brent geese, as well as wigeon, even when swimming 
in very large bodies, a thousand or more in number, rise to wing 
when either a single black-backed or herring gull appears over- 
head ! When brent geese were killed by a shoulder-gun from the 
islands, these gulls, despite the loud shouting of the fowlers, 
succeeded in carrying some off before the dogs by swimming, or 
the men by taking to their boat could reach the spot. Tame 
