22S October, 



-PLAYS" OF BIRDS AND "BALLS" OF FRY. 



BY SIR R. LLOYD PATTERSON, D.L-, F.L.S. 



Among the many and various sights that a sea-fisherman, who 

 is also even ever so little of a naturalist, may enjoy, few are 

 more interesting than those locally known by the above names. 

 It is long since these first attracted attention ; in Harris's 

 " Historyof Down/' published in 1744, we find the following:— 

 " In Carrickfergus Bay, and about the Copland Islands, 

 when the Herrings and Fry are in their passage, great shoals 

 are seen ot Codd, Gray-fish, or old Blockans, Gurnard, and 

 Knowds, which are the Gray Gurnard, who all pursue their 

 prey. It is pleasant to come within the play of those fish in a 



boat. The large fish attack the shoal, which for 



safety are often forced to the top, where the Gaunts' or Soland 

 Geese and other water-fowl upon the wing observe them and 

 give warning to their companions, so that in five or six 

 minutes may be seen two or three hundred of these birds 

 striking at their prey from a great height in the air, while the 

 Puffins, Comorants, and other water-fowl dive among them ; 

 and the Codd and Gray-fish tumble about and leap in the 

 water without being frightened by the boat's crew, and rise so 

 near that they are often struck with a gaff or hook fixed at the 

 end of a stick, and drawn into the boat." 



Speaking still of Belfast Lough (the " Carrickfergus Bay '* 

 of Harris), these plays of birds on fry have long been of 

 interest to me, as we often had to depend on our getting a 

 " dip " of fry to provide bait for our fishing ; but, quite 

 apart from such utilitarian aspects, they are of great in- 

 terest, and even beauty. Fish are not, as a rule, so abundant 

 in the lough of late years as when Harris wrote ; but 

 their procedure is similar. When the shoals of fry come in, 

 the larger fish and the birds accompany them. Among 

 the fish the most numerous are generally the Grey Gurnard 

 (locally called Knowd or Nowd), Piked Dogfish, and often 

 Mackerel ; next Sea Bream, Cod, Coal-fish (locally called 

 Stanlock), and Pollack (locally called Lythe), with an oc- 

 casional Ling, and; still more rarely, a Hake. 



1 The old spelUug of the word "Gannets." 



