A Robbed Hawk
A very strange little event in natural history has been seen on the south coast. The observer was not a specialiSt on birds. The species of the two in question evaded his analysis ; but he was quite sure, beyond dispute that one was a big hawk and the other a big gull. I will presume on a certain amount of evidence that the hawk was a Peregrine Falcon and the gull a Greater Black-back. The hawk had struck and was carrying a pigeon when it was attacked by the gull, and in the confusion dropped the pigeon which fell almost at the observer's feet ; and neither enjoyed the ill-gotten meal. The moral is even stronger than in Aesop's fables. It is not surprising that such a great gull (which is perhaps the savagest bird that flies) should face a hawk, but it is curious that a hawk, which is capable of a speed that would easily outdistance any gull, should have been so victimised. Perhaps the weight of the pigeon proved an equalising handicap. I have quoted before an experience of the robbing of a seal of his fish by two black-backed gulls, which mobbed the seal every time he came to the surface of
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