THE WOMBAT. Al 
swallow anything it found as soon as possible, since it would thus 
have more chance ot eluding the gull’s observation, though this, I 
believe, it hardly ever does, On the other hand it is’ possible 
that the gull’s approach—commencing from the first indication of 
success on the part of its quarry—may be so swift that the latter 
has rarely time to swallow on the ground, and finds it difficult to 
do so during flight. It, when the peewit had once swallowed, it 
could not be made to disgorge, we could better understand that 
curious change of intention which the gull sometimes exhibits in 
the very midst of flying down upon it. The precise. manner, 
therefore, in which the peewit is robbed may be as open to doubt as 
it is in some other cases where the main fact is not less certain. 
A more interesting point is involved in the question of what is the 
precise mental attitude of thegull towards the peewit and vice versa, 
It might’ be thought that hostility, pure and simple, was the only 
possible one in such a case as this, or that, if the gull had acquired 
» contempt for the peewit, the peewit, at any rate must look with 
terror and resentment on the gull. But if this lastis the case how 
is it that the two birds may coustantly be seen standing almost side 
by side with apparent indifference, and that, until the actual chase 
has begun, the peewit never seems at all afraid of its persecutor ? 
On the other hand, the gull appears to me. to have acquired an 
instinct similar to thet which restrains a shepherd’s dog from biting 
the sheep and only allows him to drive and hustle them, Though 
he pursues closely he does not actually attack and his very cries 
seem to express complaint rather than anger, as though he were 
demanding what-the peewit, as well as himself, knew to be his due. 
It is, at least, possible that this may really be the case. However 
a habit of this kind may have commenced, when once the weaker 
bird had come to be terrorised by the stronger one, the latter would 
be likely—on the principle of ‘least: action” —-gradually to 
accustom itself to threaten only, and the threat, in time would 
be responded to more as an instinet than in fear of something that 
had ceased. Thus to the gull the peewit might become by degrees 
first a subject having duties, and at last a dutiful subject; whilst 
the peewit would see in the gull not so much an oppressor as an 
existing and necessary state of things —in fact an institution. This 
curious result—to which our hnman, experience offers no sort of 
‘parallel—is perhaps the most interesting fedture in a species of 
‘parasitism which is, in itself, full of interest. 
