.'>52 Prof. Mcintosh's Notes from the 



total captured by the boats at St. Andrews in a day for 

 this period, and calculating 5 working days in a week, it is 

 found that the total for the season will be about 4000 birds. 

 This is probably a low average, for lately no less than 620 

 birds were brought in by the boats in one day, whilst on 

 other occasions 100 and 200 birds were procured in a single 

 day. 



Selecting another low average, viz. 30, as the number of 

 fishes captured by each bird in a day, it is found that, in the 

 224 days which cover the fishing-period, these birds would 

 have disposed of 26,880,000 fishes each season ; and yet this 

 is but a fragnaent of the vast tax levied on fishes — especially 

 young fishes — by the sea-birds in St. Andrews Bay. That 

 30 fishes a day is a very moderate computation a little 

 experience will prove. Thus 30 small sand-eels have been 

 found in the stomach of a single guillemot as the amount 

 consumed within a few hours. In the same way 10 sprats, be- 

 tween two and three inches long, and several sand-eels formed 

 the meal of another, whilst the gizzard contained a quantity 

 of crushed fragments and many otoliths. The digestive 

 activity of this bird keeps pace with its rapacity. Those 

 who have watched a guilletnot at work in the open sea 

 capturing young fishes right and left at the surface, or have 

 seen a cormorant amidst a swarm of young fishes in a tank ^, 

 will consider that the foregoing estimate is not overstated, 

 even taking into account the fact that the scoters and scaup- 

 ducks feed largely on Mollusca. Both, however, devour 

 young fishes and the floating eggs of fishes in thousands as 

 they are carried by currents in long lines near the surface. 



While, therefore, man's agency — in conjunction with 

 natural causes, leading occasionally to a check in the 

 increase of fishes — need not be underestimated, it is doubtful 

 if due appreciation is accorded to the vast variety and great 

 extent of natural agencies which tend, on the one hand, to 

 check increase, and, on the other, to restore the balance 

 Avhich has been impaired. In contrast with these, man^s 

 efforts, great though they may be, are overshadowed. 

 Nature's ways in the ocean, especially in regard to the food- 

 fishes, are not easily interfered with ; and though apparent 

 reduction in the larger forms may occur in certain areas, 

 yet myriads of the smaller soon occupy their places and 

 restore the supremacy of the larger. 



The loss of 4000 piscatorial birds in a season in one bay 



* As, for example, in the Dublin Zoological Gardens under the auspices 

 of Prof. Cunningham. 



