Mr Scot-Skirving on tlie Natural History of I slay. 39 



to hunt them in boats and kill them with sticks, and seemed 

 to have no fear of man whatever. It was interesting to 

 observe the few old ones among them utter from time to time 

 a weird, plaintive, not ud musical call of warning to the 

 young generation, which, however, gave little heed to the 

 prudent caution and example of their elders. I have said 

 that at this period the sea was absolutely calm and translucent. 

 Looking down into its depths one saw m}Tiads of minute 

 fishes — most of them, I was told, the young of the herring. 

 On these countless birds were feeding, whilst larger fishes, 

 including vast shoals of mackerel, were devouring an infinitely 

 greater number. I could not but think, when I gazed on 

 this scene, of much of the evidence given to the Government 

 commissions on the herring fisheries, and I regret to say their 

 report too. In that document the poor gannets are specially 

 singled out as sinners above all other fish destroyers ; but if 

 Mr Frank Buckland, who has written on this question, had 

 visited Loch-in-daal last September, he might have seen 

 that Nature may very weU be left to take care of herself. 

 He might have seen that, though not a gannet was near, 

 countless thousands of other birds fed on fish, and that never- 

 theless the work of the bu^ds was to be counted as nothing 

 compared to havoc done on fish by other fish. Had a flock 

 of gannets been present they would have killed some thou- 

 sands of mackerel, and in so doing they would have dimin- 

 ished by that number far deadlier enemies of the herring 

 than they themselves are. 



Wherever there is much animal life, there also death is 

 busy. Still I was surprised to see so many dead razor-bills 

 float ashore. The beach during their short stay was almost 

 fringed with their dead. 



I think, but I quote from memory, that ^Ir Gray noticed 

 in a paper a remarkable mortality which took place among 

 the auk tribe some years ago in the Firth of Clyde, and I 

 think he attributed it to a deficiency of food. This could not 

 be the case in Loch-in-daal, which swarmed with minute 

 fishes. I hardly care to mention a circumstance with regard 

 to the dead razor-bills, as I can offer no explanation of it, but 

 it was observed by many persons, and was certainly a fact. 



