1904. Pattkrson. — '' Plays'' of E^irds and '' Balls'' of Fry. 229 



The bottom-feeding fish, such as Skate, hardly count in this 

 connection. Among the birds maybe seen all the commoner 

 species of Gulls in great variety of plumage, indicating dif- 

 ferences in age ; all the smaller divers, mostly Guillemots and 

 Razor-bills ; some Puffins ; still fewer Black Guillemots ; 

 Cormorants, Gannets, Terns, generally some few Manx 

 Shearwaters, and possibly one or two Skuas. A number of 

 the larger fish must make a simultaneous attack on a shoal of 

 fry below, which are thus driven closer together and towards 

 the surface, when they are noticed by the smaller divers 

 who " go for them " in such a manner that, circling round the 

 outer extremity of the shoal of fry, the fish composing it 

 become still- more closely driven into a mass which almost 

 always assumes a globular form, and hence is locally called a 

 " ball." The upper portion of this ball shows at the sur" 

 face, and is there exposed to the attacks of the surface- feeding 

 gulls, some of which sit down on the water while others only 

 " dip " on the ball. The Terns dip, and sometimes strike from 

 a slight elevation ; while Gannets feed both ways, that is — 

 generally sitting down to their meal, or, less frequently, "strik- 

 ing" obliquely at the ball, also from only a moderate height, 

 but the splash and impact of these great birds soon break up 

 the ball, which scatters, goes down, and disappears. If a 

 Manx Shearwater appears, it sits down among the fry and 

 picks them up from the surface, although, as lately mentioned 

 {Irish Naturalist for August, p. 171), I have seen them emerg- 

 ing from below. Over a large ball that had been up for some 

 minutes, and had thus given the birds time to assemble, 

 the scene is an extraordinary one, while the noise made by 

 the varied cries^ of several hundreds of them create an 

 almost deafening Babel of discordant sound. The local 

 boatmen speak of the birds " balling " as well as the fry ; but 

 by this they only mean that the birds are assembled at and 

 attacking a ball. On approaching a play of fowl to get 

 some fry — either for whitebait for table use, or to use as bait 

 for fishing, one sees the ball of fry, a dull, leaden-coloured 

 globe of varying size from one-and-a-half or two feet up to five 

 or six feet — I have seldom seen them larger in diameter ; 

 flashes of silver constantly show all over the visible surface of 

 the ball, as some of the individuals composing it turn their 



