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CHAPTER IX. 

 SEA FOWL. 



FRIENDS OR FOES. 



HAS the Sea Birds' Preservation Act failed by over success- 

 fulness or by under; are we unduly protecting the gulls 

 and guillemots to the ruin of our coast fisheries ; or are we 

 negligent and insensible to the exterminating ravages of 

 cockney sportsmen and plumesters ? Such questions as these 

 are frequently asked and answered with every variety of 

 conviction and logic. My own opinion, I may say at once, 

 is that over preservation of the bird life of the sea-shore and 

 marsh flats is simply and utterly impossible. If we were 

 to infence our seafowl with legislative protection, until they 

 were as common as sparrows in a winter stackyard, I do 

 not believe the price of herrings or sprats would go up 

 a farthing a " last " from this cause. That thousands of fish 

 might daily go down these myriad hungry maws is quite 

 certain ; but against this there is the fact, never sufficiently 

 recognized, that in the economy of such things as the herring 

 shoals, it is space and opportunity alone which limit their 

 reproduction and increase. The onslaught of a hundred 

 thousand solan geese and puffins could be repaired by the 

 fertility of a few score female herrings, if Nature found there 

 was sea room and food sufficient for them. Of this we are 

 as confident as that Providence understand such matters as 

 well if not better than the town council of Little Pedling- 

 ton-by-the-Sea. 



