326 Correspondence. [i.t^A^rii 



out most of tlic fish clst'wliere, so are now seeking new feeding- 

 places. Presuming that the birds were always here, they might 

 not have been in such great numbers as of late years, and prob- 

 ably they have been breeding more prolifically during the last 

 twenty years. We have no reliable data to prove this, I know, 

 but from the reports in the daily papers, also The Emu, about 

 the great increase of Cormorants, this would appear to be the 

 case. I would, in fact, go further than that by saying there can 

 be httle doubt that, taking Austraha as a whole, the Cormorants 

 are now more numerous than ever, so that explodes Capt. White's 

 argument. Yet it may have been that the fish were here in very 

 great numbers long before the Cormorants, and at the time white 

 people arrived their destructive habits were inchoate. Nobody 

 can say what was happening here thousands of years ago. 

 There are a great many changes in nature which man cannot . 

 account for ; for instance, we have the blow-fly trouble now, 

 which was practically unknown until recent years. Capt. White 

 thinks it uncalled for because I could not, agree with his argu- 

 ment. Had I been able to I should not have written the article 

 at all. I said nothing to make him reahy think I disbelieved 

 his statement re visiting Coorong, nor did I doubt it for one 

 moment ; nor did I ask anyone to take my version (as he words 

 it) of the subject as correct ; but simply stated I considered, if 

 it is gone into thoroughly, it is more likely to prove quite the 

 contrary. And I am stiU of that opinion, in spite of Capt. White 

 thinking it only worthy of an observant fislierman. Even if, as 

 Capt. White says, crabs are the enemies of fish, and the food of 

 Cormorants, they are also the food of many fish. He also states 

 the birds were destroyed by the fishermen. The only way I 

 know of destroying adult Cormorants is to shoot them ; if this 

 was done at Coorong, the fishermen must have gone to a very 

 l)ig expense in ammunition. If they visited their nesting places 

 and destroyed the eggs and young, the old l)irds would go else- 

 where to breed, so that would not decrease their numbers at all 

 for the whole of Australia. But it is ridiculous to say the birds 

 were destroyed (it is a pity they were not) — there must be some 

 millions of them still in Austraha. So it seems odd, if the crabs 

 are their natural food (as Capt. White states), that they do not 

 return to where the crabs are now so numerous. The poor fish- 

 ermen, who, Capt. White says, are suffering a loss of hundreds of 

 pounds each year, could surely not be 'able to afford to purchase 

 cartridges at present prices to destroy them. They might have 

 destroyed a few hundreds in the past, but even if it were a few 

 thousands the little difference this would make to Australia would 

 be immaterial. Cormorants have been numerous during the 

 last few years in so many parts of Australia, destroying thousands • 

 of our good native fish, for tlu'v can and dt) devour fish with 

 avidity ; but Capt. White does not appear to realize liow great 

 has been the devastation. Surely this all goes to prove that his 

 theory is not correct. Again, surely he does not think that from the 



