The Parasitic Jaeger 
HARD upon the migrating hosts of Terns come these cruel tyrants of 
the sea, the Jaegers. Despicable in that they have turned traitor to 
their own kind, and in that they harass the least as well as the greatest 
of that kind, they nevertheless provoke admiration and astonishment by 
their gracefulness, their skillfulness, and their saucy bravado. Every 
line in the Jaeger’s make-up is cut for speed. Once its gleaming, covetous 
eye is cast upon a victim, it is no question of escape, but only a matter 
of detail in the terms of capitulation. 
A tern catches a herring, and while it is disposing of its catch, the 
free-booter hurries up and dives at the tern suggestively. The Jaeger 
makes no attempt to snatch the fish, but it dives under its victim, jostling 
it each time, and forcing it up into the air. The tern twists this way and 
that, screaming protestingly, but anon drops the fish, which the Jaeger 
snatches deftly in mid-air. Not content with this ransom, which is 
instantly bolted, the bandit demands to know whether the victim has 
any more fish secreted about his person, and harries the hapless wight 
until the contents of the crop are disgorged, or, if already empty, until 
the victim clearly establishes his poverty. 
Jaegers frequently hunt in pairs, and when so fortified are able to 
successfully handle much larger subjects. A Glaucous-winged Gull could 
nearly eat a Jaeger alive, if he could only get at him. But the parasites 
are too adroit, too elusive, and too desperately persistent. The gull 
hates to do it, but also he hates to be buffeted and hustled away from the 
fishing-grounds: “Here, take it, you scum, and be off with you!” 
Jaegers, both of this and of the preceding species, pass along our 
coasts in considerable numbers in late April and early May and again in 
September. They do not, of course, move in flocks like terns, for no 
territory could support such wholesale brigandage; but at the height of 
the season one may see a score of birds, in steaming from San Pedro to 
Avalon, or from Santa Barbara to Santa Cruz Island. The season of 
1914 was a late one in California. At Santa Barbara both sorts of 
Jaegers and four kinds of terns were found on the 14th of November. 
Doubtless many of these lesser pirates winter hereabouts, for they do 
not go much further south. The Jaegers are not entirely dependent upon 
forced charity, for they devour offal on shore, or glean tidbits from the 
surface of the water, quite after the fashion of other gulls. Upon dis¬ 
covering a morsel below, the Jaeger checks its flight suddenly, with a 
display of the characteristic tail-feathers which is quite gratifying to 
the watchful student; and it settles daintily upon the water to investigate 
at leisure or to snatch and rise with perfect grace. In its northern home, 
the lowlands and coastal marshes of Alaska, it is said to hunt a great 
deal inshore, where it catches shrew-mice, lemmings, and even small 
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