258 COARSE FISH. 



it is a puzzle to many anglers that the owners of ducks 

 should be allowed to turn their birds on the river during 

 the spawning season. 



The writer of a letter which appeared in the Field on 

 the 3rd of April, 1897, over the signature "Thames 

 Angler," says : "For years, far-seeing anglers, possessing 

 more or less scientific knowledge of their favourite sport, 

 have been diligently hammering away in the press and 

 elsewhere on the necessity of preserving the spawn of 

 coarse fish from swans, ducks, and other wild fowl. At 

 last the evil appears to have become recognised, and the 

 T.A.P.S. and other bodies have been making, and, it is 

 to be hoped, will continue to make, the most determined 

 attempts to free the Thames and other rivers in which 

 the fishing is more or less public from the greatest known 

 enemies of the spawn and brood of fish. (The italics are 

 mine.) It is one of those strange paradoxes .... that 

 while the law says no man may take a coarse fish between 

 March i5th and June i5th, ducks and swans may eat as 

 many small fish as ever they please, 'and gobble down 

 mouthfuls of spawn soup, a pint of which contains the 



potentialities of many a shoal of sport-giving fish 



As a fish-eater the common farmyard duck is not a whit 

 less voracious than the white swan, but its shortness of 

 neck prevents it from depleting the weeds of spawn 

 placed far below the surface ; whereas it seems as if its 

 handsome companion in destruction had a neck given 

 him by nature for the express purpose of doing all the 



injury possible to fish-preserves Next .... 



comes the steam-launch, which, during the Easter holi- 

 days, deposes from their resting-places among the weeds 

 those few eggs which the swans and ducks have missed. 

 Once washed from their weedy nests the eggs sink to the 

 bottom of the river, and are eaten up by sticklebacks and 

 other fish. The importance of the Thames fisheries has 



been recognised by Parliament for many years 



The obvious injustice of swans and ducks being 

 given privileges which are denied human beings still 

 remains " 



Hundreds of anglers (myself amongst the number) will 

 entirely agree with " Thames Angler " in what he has 

 said, and will sincerely thank him for his spirited letter. 

 The Thames affords sport and health to thousands of 



