are fewer salmon now than there were before the jjassing of the Bird 

 Act is a statement by no means borne out by facts, for the reports from 

 the upper waters shew that this year — and it has been the same for 

 several years past — the fish are as abundant on the spawning beds as 

 ever they were, if not fully more so, crowding and interfering with each 

 other in some of the fords so much as to be doing more harm than good. 

 The late Mr Stod.dart, than whom, perhaps, there was no better authority, 

 calcidated that 150,000,000 of salmon ova are annually deposited on 

 the Tay, of which only 50,000,000, or one-third, ever come to life, 

 leaving 100,000,000 ova either to be dried up by the partial falling in 

 of the water, or waslied away by the floods, to be devoured by any 

 roving fish or sea bird which may chance to come across them. I 

 cannot quit this subject without saying one word in favour of a bird, 

 though not under consideration in this paper, which is most unjustly 

 accused of destroying salmon spawn on the beds, and in its case, just 

 what I said before, a conclusion is jumped at without further inquiry, 

 and this unfortunate bird is shot down without scruple or conscience. 

 This is the little Water Ouzel, or Water Crow. j!^ow, it is an incon- 

 testable fact, of which I have had frequent proof, that the Water 

 Ouzel, though continually on the beds during spawning time, plunging 

 and tumbling about under water in the midst of the most rapid stream, 

 devours not the spawn, but the very creatures which prey upon it — the 

 larvae of water beetles and small fresh water crustaceans, with which 

 the gizzard will be found crammed, but not one single ovum. In justice, 

 therefore, not only to this bird, but to all, let the saddle be put on the 

 right horse. I now come to the last bu'ds on the list — the Terns or 

 Sea Swallows, uf which there are foiu' species which come to us, the 

 Sandwich, the Arctic, Lesser and Common (by no means, however, a very 

 common bird), all of which, with the exception of the Sandwich, used 

 to breed in large numbers on the sand hill at Buddonness and 

 round about on Barry, now much reduced in numbers, a 

 spot which I had understood them to have altogether deserted ; but 

 Mr Henderson assures me that they breed there still, though in small 

 parties, but are mvich interfered with by the Volimteer Artillery 

 practice, the shot passing over their favourite station, to the great dis- 

 comfiture of the birds, which have in consequence been driven ofi" and 

 shifted their gi-ound. The three latter all breed at the mouth of the 

 Tay. The former, however, as Mr Henderson tells me, though seen at 

 the beginning of the season, do not breed there, but do so on an island 

 on the Firth of Forth, and make their appearance again later or in the 

 season in company with their young. This leads me to what was 

 casually alluded to in the beginning of this paper, and Avhich, in the 



