COUNTRY LIFE
NEAR Littichampton last week an observer saw a spectacle that reminds me closely of a South African experience. He was watching the nuptial flights of ants—always an interesting sight—and noticed that a number of seagulls (herring-gulls ?) also were interested. They flew backwards and forwards over the nest, devouring the insects on the wing. The meal sounds inadequate for a gull, but all sorts of birds will eat ants, or near- ants. The best of South -African naturalists told me that among the strangest of his experiences 'was coming upon a circle of birds, small and large, including hawks, waiting round about a white ants nest, from which a few moments later emerged a crowd of its winged inmates, whereupon the birds, which had scorned a sitting target, feasted greedily on the winged host of termites, regardless of the watcher or one another.
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