198 THE LIFE OF THE FIELDS. 



to be exterminated in the sense that the wolf has 

 been. Otters will be found elsewhere in England 

 long after the last of them has disappeared from 

 the south. Next the pike must be ousted from trout- 

 streams. Special nets have been invented by which 

 pike can be routed from their strongholds. Much 

 hunting about quickens the intelligence of the pike 

 to such a degree that he cannot be secured in the 

 ordinary manner ; he baffles the not by keeping close 

 to the bank, behind stones, or by retiring to holes 

 under roots. Perch have to go as well as pike ; and 

 then comes the turn of birds. 



Herons, kingfishers, moorhens, coots, grebes, ducks, 

 teal, various divers, are all proscribed on behalf of trout. 

 Herons are regarded as most injurious to a fishery. 

 As was observed a century ago, a single heron will 

 soon empty a pond or a stretch of brook. As their long 

 necks give them easy command of a wide radius in 

 spying round them, it is rather difficult to shoot them 

 with a shot-gun ; but with the small-bore rifles now 

 made no heron is safe. They are generally shot early 

 in the morning. Were it not for the fact that herons 

 nest like rooks, and that heronries are valued appur- 

 tenances in parks, they would soon become scarce. 

 Kingfishers prey on smaller fish, but are believed to 

 eat almost as many as herons. Kingfishers resort in 

 numbers to trout nurseries, which are as traps for them : 

 and there they are more than decimated. Owls are 

 known to take fish occasionally, and are therefore shot. 

 The greatest loss sustained in fisheries takes place in 

 the spawning season, and again when the fry are about. 

 Some students of fish-life believe that almost all wild- 



