A TERN COLONY 



THERE is the widest possible diversity of opinion 

 as to the effect of the Wild Bird Protection Acts 

 in securing the object they have in view. A 

 writer, dealing with the county of Kent, declared 

 that the Acts had completely eliminated the interest 

 of the small boy in birds and nests, from which 

 followed a long sequence of effects, eventuating 

 in the disappearance of large trout from the chalk 

 streams no bird-nesting, more birds ; more birds, 

 fewer insects ; fewer insects, reduced supplies of 

 the best fish-fattening provender ; fewer sizable 

 fish, disappointed anglers. Without working out 

 a story about it, the owners of Scottish fishings 

 allege something of the same sort when they say 

 that black -headed gulls have increased in number, 

 and that their increase involves the destruction 

 of countless salmon ova and fry. 



So far as the North Country is concerned, the 

 writer has had good reason for thinking that where 

 no special protection is afforded the pleasing pas- 

 time of gathering eggs is as much indulged in as 

 ever it was. Twenty years ago he was very familiar 

 with a colony of common terns which, many 

 hundreds strong, had its quarters on a low head- 

 land projecting into the waters of the Moray Firth. 



