WATER POACHERS 187 



II 



FRY POACHERS 



THE heron is a great trout-stream poacher, and 

 destroys quantities of immature fish. This has long 

 been known, but the fact received striking con- 

 firmation from an incident which occurred at the 

 rearing-ponds at Stormont field. Here a heron was 

 shot as it left off fishing, when it immediately 

 disgorged fifty fry. 



Another bird which is an enemy to both salmon 

 and trout in, their fry stage is the black-headed gull. 

 The bird with its laughing cry hovers over the stream 

 and never lets slip an opportunity of snapping up a 

 brown trout or silvery samlet that has left its place 

 of refuge. The late Francis Francis was fully aware 

 of this fact, and he set down both gulls and terns as 

 most notorious offenders. A couple of hundred 

 gulls will devour at least 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. 



As to what part the pretty white-breasted dipper 

 plays in the economy of salmon rivers and trout 

 streams naturalists are by no means agreed. Frank 



