254 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



pecially during the autumn at low-water, when 

 they are capable of causing the destruction of 

 a large number of fish ; nevertheless, they may 

 well be tolerated, unless they are very numerous, 

 but it is necessary to keep their number within 

 a reasonable limit. Where a fishery is deteri- 

 orating, any and every cause but the correct one 

 is usually assigned. As often as not it is due to 

 pollution, the spawning -beds being choked up 

 with filth and mud ; and quite as frequently it 

 is the result of indiscriminate poaching. Then, 

 again, pike will work havoc in a stream ; and, I 

 venture to assert, tame ducks and swans will do 

 as much harm as all the rest put together. I 

 have been an ardent fisherman all my life, and 

 so consider myself qualified to give an opinion 

 on matters piscatorial ; and I have never yet 

 had reason to believe that moorhens are in any 

 way harmful to a fishery, and it will require more 

 than mere assertion to convince me to the con- 

 trary ; were I capable of believing them to be 

 inimical to the interests of a river, I could not 

 love them as I do. 



There are few birds which afford me greater 

 pleasure and interest than moor-hens, and they 

 are ornamental withal, for when in full plumage 

 a moor-hen is particularly handsome, his orange 

 bill and white tail contrasting well with the 

 dark olive-brown and blue-black colour of the 

 rest of his body as he dots his way across the 

 stream. 



