i88 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



Buckland says that one might as well shoot a swallow 

 skimming over a turnip-field as a dipper over the 

 spawning beds. And this view of the dipper's 

 economy I believe, as I have already stated, 

 to be a right and just one. In opposition to 

 this, however, it must be admitted that individual 

 dippers have been seen with tiny fish in their 

 bills, and even to feed their young ones upon 

 them. Birds in confinement have also been fed 

 upon minnows, but this penchant might be an 

 acquired one. It may be asserted, then, that the 

 ouzel has been known to eat fry, but that fish forms 

 no chief portion of his food; and finally, that it 

 would be quite incorrect to describe it as a fish- 

 eating bird, and therefore as an enemy to salmon 

 and trout. 



Kingfishers are among the most persistent of trout- 

 stream poachers, and as many as eighty of these 

 beautiful birds have been killed in a season on a 

 famous nursery in the Midlands. As in the case of 

 the heron, nothing will save the fry from these 

 marauders but covering in the rearing ponds with the 

 finest wire net. 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. 



The fact of salmon and trout devouring the spawn 

 of their own kind has been already referred to, and 



