NATURE BY THE WATERSIDE 249 



This beautiful little gull is a great destroyer of 

 both salmon and trout in the fry and yearling stage ; 

 and the number of smelts they destroy at 

 certain seasons is almost incredible. The Black- 

 bird, with its laughing cry, hovers over the 

 stream or estuary, and never lets slip an 

 opportunity of snapping up a trout or samlet that 

 has left its place of safety. Francis Francis was 

 fully aware of this fact, and sets down both gulls 

 and terns as notorious offenders. A couple of 

 hundred gulls will devour a thousand smolts per 

 day ; and the birds may be seen at Loch Lomond 

 travelling to and from Gull Island and the burns 

 all day, each with a trout or parr in its beak. I have 

 frequently witnessed the like performance on the 

 Kent and Duddon Sands. This must have a con- 

 siderable effect on the future supply of grilse. 



Of all the birds of the streams and lakes none is 

 so beautiful as the kingfisher ; and its presence is 

 peculiarly in keeping with the rapid, rocky The 

 trout streams which it loves to haunt. It King- 

 is, however, one of the most persistent of 

 trout-stream poachers ; and it is stated that as many 

 as eighty of these beautiful birds have been killed 

 in a season on a famous fishery in the midlands. 

 However one may wish to protect the kingfisher, 

 there is no denying the fact of its penchant for 

 fish, especially the fry of salmon and trout ; the 

 bad habit is bred in him. As in the case of the 

 heron, nothing will save fry from these marauders 

 but covering in the rearing ponds with the finest 

 wire net. 



The following is no fanciful picture. I have 

 witnessed something like it a score of times. 

 Over there is an overhanging bough, and upon it 



