ABSTRACT
A NOTHER bird that dwells in northern waters is called the skua, a violent punisher of birds that dive into the sea to feed on fish. This is its method of preying on other birds. It flies at them, seizes their head in its beak, and then wrenches away their booty for its own consumption; assaulted in this way the diver soon lets go its prize. Sometimes, if the skua has been cramming itself with shell-fish, so that the shells weigh heavily on its stomach, it spews them up half-digested by the heat of its maw, sucks out the oyster or other meat from inside the shell, and then eats it. 1 Among the sea-fish which are broad and equipped with a sting is one called the ray. It protects any swimmer from being seized, drowned, and devoured by sharks, and does not leave him till it has seen him out of danger. I shall reveal more later about its compassion and the sharks’ ferocity. 2 Here at least is one lesson for thoughtless man to learn, not to conduct himself with brutal severity, but to keep it in check, and to defend the innocent everywhere. This fish very often snatches the cormorant and feeds on it when the bird dives beneath the waves, to show that there is some creature in the sea to take vengeance on its rapacity. 3
