BIBB NOTES AND NEWS. 



this it appears that the total quantity of 

 fish landed in England and Wales in the 

 year showed an increase of 5 per cent, all 

 round in quant it}^, but that there had been 

 a decline in value. In pelagic fish (herring, 

 mackerel, pilchards, and sprats) the amount 

 was half a million cwt. over that of the 

 previous year, and above that of 1907. 

 In deep-sea fish the quantity taken on the 

 west coast had nearly doubled since 1905, 

 though on the east coast it had declined. 

 The decline in value seems to be owing to 

 the small size of many of the fish, such as 

 plaice. Whether the dragging up of 

 immature fish by steam trawlers has any- 

 thing to do with this, fishermen must decide ; 

 it cannot be attributed to Gulls. 



These facts are emphasised by later and 

 more local reports. The returns, for instance, 

 for Devon and Cornwall for October, 1911, 

 still tell of good catches and lower prices, 

 so that the consumer benefitted more than 

 the fisherman. The sea's harvest of herrings, 

 pilchards, and sprats was especially abundant. 

 These are precisely the kinds which the Gulls 

 are accused of destroying to the ruin of 

 the fishery industry, and on behalf of which 

 the outcry has been raised in those very 

 counties. On the East Coast the herring 

 fishing of 1911 has beaten all records, over 

 800 million fish having been landed at 

 Yarmouth and Gorleston in the autumn 

 season to November 25th. 



THE STARLING. 



An alteration agreed to by the Middlesex 

 County Council in respect to the protection 

 of the Starling in that county, has occasioned 

 an ebullition of exaggerated and, it must 

 be added, mischievous reports and para- 

 graphs in the newspapers evidently based 

 on a misunderstanding of the whole matter. 

 Middlesex and London have hitherto been 

 the only two counties in England to protect 

 the Starling tliroughout the year, the 

 additional protection being given mainly to 

 check the spurious " sport " of starling- 

 shoots from traps. These shoots have been 

 not indeed stopped, but checked ; and 

 meantime there has been throughout the 

 country a marked increase in the species. 

 Farmers have lodged complaints of damage 

 alleged to be done to springing corn, and the 

 Middlesex Council has decided to remove 

 the extra protection given. The bird will 

 retain the ordinary Close-time protection 



which alone is given it in every other extra - 

 metropolitan county. 



Whether the outcry against the Starling 

 is well-founded or no, is another matter. 

 In general, it is undoubtedly one of the 

 best friends of the farmer, however trouble- 

 some its depredations in the cherry-orchard. 

 Being more numerous than the Lapwing, 

 it accounts for the destruction of more wire- 

 worm, leather-jackets, and chafer-grubs than 

 any other species. Mr. Archibald, of the 

 Yorkshire College writes, in reference to its 

 increasing numbers : — 



" Luckily it is an extremely useful bird, carrying 

 on an untiring search for grubs and insects. No 

 one who has watched a party of Starlings feeding 

 busily can fail to recognise the great service they 

 render. There ib no doubt they take a little corn, 

 biit any harm done is not worth considering in 

 comparison Math the great benefits they confer 

 upon agriculture." 



Possibly their depredations may be more 

 marked in certain districts, and may require 

 that the numbers of the bird should be kept 

 down. On the other hand the Starling, far 

 from being a strictly protected bird, has never 

 been scheduled in Middlesex, and conse- 

 quently no slightest hindrance has ever been 

 placed on its destruction by occupiers of 

 land. It might not unreasonably be supposed 

 that this license was great enough in the case 

 of any bird. Complaints of alleged damage, 

 moreover, need to be investigated with 

 impartial exactitude. Only the other day 

 a member of a County Council gravely rose 

 to protest on behalf of a Beekeepers' Associa- 

 tion against the scheduling of the Bee-eater, 

 which he described as " one of the biggest 

 pests the beekeeper has to contend with." 

 As the Bee-eater happens to be a rare visitor 

 from the tropics, which has never been seen 

 in that particular county, and has no very 

 great fancy for bees, one can but conclude 

 that beekeepers have a pleasant time. 

 Another County Council was, not long since, 

 the recipient of a memorial from fruit and 

 other farmers protesting against the protec- 

 tion of the Goldfinch and the Tree-Sparrow. 

 The Goldfinch is absolutely harmless to fruit 

 and corn ; and the Tree-Sparrow is so com- 

 paratively scarce that its appearance is always 

 a matter of some interest to the naturalist. 

 We shall possibly hear next that the wander- 

 ing Nutcrackers, unfortunately seen and 

 accordingly shot in Bucks and Suffolk this 

 autumn, were a danger to the cobnut crop. 



