THE SACRIFICE TO TROUT. 199 



fowl will swallow the ova and fry of trout. It must 

 be understood that I am not here entering into the 

 question whether all these are really so injurious ; I 

 am merely giving a list of the " dogs with a bad name." 

 Moorhens and coots are especially disliked because they 

 are on or near the water day and night, and can 

 clear off large quantities of fry. Grebes (di-dappers or 

 dabchicks) are similar in habit, but less destructive 

 because fewer. Ducks are ravenous devourers; teal 

 are equally hated. The various divers which occasion- 

 ally visit the streams are also guilty. Lastly, the swan 

 is a well-known trout-pirate. Besides these, the two 

 kinds of rat — land and water — have a black mark 

 against them. Otter, pike, perch, heron, kingfisher, 

 owl, moorhen, coot, grebe, diver, wild-duck, swan, teal, 

 dipper, land-rat, and water-rat — altogether sixteen 

 creatures — are killed in order that one may flourish. 

 Although none of these, even in the south of England — 

 except the otter — has yet been excluded, the majority 

 of them are so thinned down as to be rarely seen unless 

 carefully sought. 



To go through the list : otters are practically ex- 

 cluded ; the pike is banished from trout streams but is 

 plentiful in others ; so too with perch ; herons, much 

 reduced in numbers ; owls, reduced ; kingfishers, grow- 

 ing scarce ; coots, much less numerous because not 

 permitted to nest ; grebes, reduced ; wild-duck, seldom 

 seen in summer, because not permitted to nest ; teal, 

 same ; swan, not permitted on fisheries unless ancient 

 rights protect it ; divers, never numerous, now scarcer ; 

 moorhens, still fairly plentiful because their ranks are 

 constantly supplied from moats and ponds where they 



