go THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



The Protection of Terns. The Scottish Freshwater 

 Fisheries Committee has condemned, among other birds alleged 

 to be destructive to freshwater fish, all species of Terns, and 

 recommends that protection be withdrawn from them. I have 

 studied very carefully the food of Terns, and handled over two 

 thousand young ones, the majority of which regurgitated the 

 contents of their crops. The chief food of the Common Tern 

 consists of young herrings, with a fair number of young whiting, 

 and also a few young codling, lumpsuckers, and long rough dabs, 

 and although the colonies visited were bounded by rivers famous 

 for their Salmonidc-e, no trace of the young of any freshwater fish 

 was found, either in the birds or on the ground. The food of the 

 larger Sandwich Tern is almost entirely young whiting. Many of 

 the Common Terns visit the fresh waters to wash themselves, and 

 although I have watched them carefully for several years, I have yet 

 to see them carrying fish from any direction but the open sea. 

 The fry of all the fish named are, moreover, extremely small. 

 In their winter quarters Terns are killed in immense numbers for 

 their wings and tails, which form important articles for the 

 decoration of feminine headgear. Moreover, great cruelty is used 

 in their collection, for the wings and tails are often torn from birds 

 only slightly wounded. Are these beautiful and graceful summer 

 visitors to be persecuted in these their summer quarters also? It is 

 desired that protection for these species should be withdrawn, 

 because of the damage they do to freshwater fisheries, which is nil. 

 In the sea there are plenty of fish-fry to satisfy a thousand times the 

 number of birds bred on our shores. Before condemning the birds, 

 would it not be better first to stop the destruction of millions of 

 fish-fry by trawlers, and also to stop hundreds of tons of fish being 

 either converted into manure or dumped back into the sea by 

 profiteers, merely to keep up high prices? Are they condemned 

 because they take a few flies on lochs which ought in the opinion of 

 the Commissioners to feed Salmonida^ ? 



It is iniquitous that such a beautiful family should be condemned 

 to destruction, when the evidence is in favour of the birds being 

 harmless to the young of game fish, and only feeding on the 

 countless millions of sea-fry, whose numbers are beyond belief 

 H. W. Robinson, Lancaster. 



[In the Orders recently issued by the Secretary for Scotland, 

 protection has been withdrawn from the Common Tern in a few 

 counties where it is liable to do harm. The other Terns are still 

 protected under the Act of 1880. Eds.] 



