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92 SEA-BIRDS 



We find from the detailed account of Schulz (1947) that since 1819 

 sixteen different sites have been occupied on the coast of Germany, 

 sometimes only three, and never more than seven at once (or six in 

 the present century). The only colony which has been continuously 

 occupied since that date is on Norderoog in the north Frisian Islands; 

 this has also always (except in one year) been the largest. In 181 9 the 

 (? over-) enthusiastic Naumann estimated the numbers breeding on 

 Norderoog as "upwards of half a million!" In the eighteen-seventies 

 it was twice alleged that Norderoog had ten thousand nests; but in 

 the present century estimates which were probably more careful have 

 given a maximum of about six thousand nests in 19 15- 17. The most 

 recent peak was 4,215 in 1943, and only four times in the last half- 

 century have under a thousand nests been found. At present Norderoog 

 accounts for all but a few hundred of the German Sandwich terns' 

 nests, and the only other regular colonies are on Wangerooge and 

 Liitje Horn. Since 1943 (4,215 nests) the Norderoog colony has 

 decreased, and only 576 sites were occupied in 1947. A glance at 

 Fig. 17, which shows the occupation of Sandwich terneries on the 

 German North Sea coast since 1905, and their population in most years, 

 will persuade the reader at once that Sandwich terns share desultory 

 and unpredictable breeding-habits with the rest of their family, 

 and that along a stretch of coast there is much transference of breeders 

 from one station to another in successive seasons. 



* * * 



So far we have been dealing mostly with cases where greed has 

 blinded the human predator to the consequences of his act, and where 

 conscious acts of altruistic legislation have helped to save the species. 

 However, there are situations in which the human communities have 

 depended, and indeed, still depend, on wild bird populations for much 

 or all of their protein supply, and have entered upon a custom of 

 annual cropping of the colonies which has resulted in no detectable 

 change in the status of these colonies other than can be expected with 

 natural fluctuation. Indeed, there are several cases where, over many 

 years, there has been a general trend of increase in a regularly exploited 

 sea-bird population. 



Anybody familiar with the history of St. Kilda or with the existing 

 situation in the Faeroe Islands and Iceland wall have discovered a 

 situation completely different from the sorry story of greed and blood- 

 shed associated with the eggers and plume-hunters of Florida, the 

 Carolinas and Virginia, the Asiatic raiders of the Pacific islands, the 



