428 THE GANNET 



another. There are all the victims of the sportsman's 

 gun to be considered, as well as those killed by 

 birds-of-prey, by rats, cats,* and other vermin ; while 

 we in England know only too well what a heavy toll pro- 

 tracted frost and deep snow take of bird-life. Telegraph 

 wires and the lighthouse, decoys and nets, are also answer- 

 able for many lives. We can guess at, but we can never 

 know, what vast numbers of the smaller denizens of our 

 groves perish when crossing the seas, during those two great 

 annual journeys which nineteen-twentieths of them must 

 perforce perform — ^that to the south in autumn, and that 

 to the north in spring. 



But it is among nestlings that the greatest waste 

 of life takes place. In Tern settlements the death-rate 

 among nestlings is very high,"]* as it is sometimes 

 known to be among closely-packed communities of 

 the Black-headed Gull, J as well as among Albatroses.§ 



* A well-known American naturalist estimated that 1,500,000 small 

 birds were destroyed in a single year by homeless and abandoned cats 

 in the New England States, U.S. (" Year Book Dept. Agriculture," 1908, 

 p. 189). Mr. W. L. Finley also remarks on sick birds being captured by 

 cats ("The Condor," 1909, p. 181). 



t See " Reports of The Fame Islands Association," 1897, 1906, 1907, 

 1911, and Alcock's "Naturalist in Indian Seas," 1902, p. 182. 



J " British Birds " (Mag.), 1909-10, p. 170. 



§ W. Eagle Clarke " Ibis," 1905, p. 264. 



