184 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



former has its day, for none of the larvae of water- 

 beetles is so destructive to spawn and fry as this. 

 Pike and coarse fish are equally partial to the same 

 repast, and even salmon and trout devour the young 

 of their own kind. Waterfowl are among the trout- 

 stream poachers, and the swan is a perfect gourmand. 

 My swan and her crew (five cygnets) would dispose 

 of two million five hundred thousand eggs in that 

 time. Some of the best trout streams in the country 

 have been depopulated of fish by these birds, and the 

 Thames as a fishing river is now greatly suffering 

 from the number of swans allowed upon it. Both 

 wild and domestic ducks are destructive to spawn 

 and almost live on the " redds " during the breeding 

 season. I have more than once shot moorhens in 

 autumn with spawn dripping from their bills, and 

 the birds themselves gorged with it. The coot has 

 been charged with the same crime, though as yet 

 guilt has only been brought home to it with regard to 

 coarse fish; and to the silvery bleak it is said to be 

 particularly partial. The grebe or dabchick must 

 be looked upon as an arrant little poacher not only of 

 eggs and fry but of fish in every stage of growth. It 

 is said that a pair of dabchicks will do more harm on 

 a river than a pair of otters, which, however, is 

 perhaps not so terrible as it sounds. Fourteen little 

 grebes fishing about a mile of trout stream, as we 

 have known, is overstepping the balance of Nature, 



