SEA FOWL. 225 



ticularly regarded as " food fish," on which the young of 

 whiting feed. And allowing each whiting to eat 200 " food 

 fish " during the 110 days, or while the birds are with us, we 

 find: 



4,292,640 

 200 



98,528,000 " food fish " lost by the destruction of birds in 110 days. 



This deduction of nearly one hundred million herrings shot 

 away with the lives of the JcittiwaJces and gulls every season, 

 under one line of cliffs alone, is a rough, unscientific perhaps, 

 but nevertheless effective popular argument for the good 

 cause, and should make the owners of the Sarah Jane, the 

 Two Brothers, and every other North Sea yawlsman rub their 

 chins reflectively and reconsider their ill-will towards the 

 birds, or their willingness to show the gentlemen of the 

 Sheffield furnaces and the Midland cotton mills the breeding- 

 places of the fair 'white fowl that supply the life and pleasure 

 of the great north seas. 



Nor are the fishermen the only class who reap some 

 benefit from these tenants of the crags. Gulls wander in- 

 land, especially in stormy weather, and though never so 

 omnipresent as rooks and starlings, nor so keen in the 

 farmer's service, yet they do him some good work such as 

 one of Mr. Morris's correspondents points out. He writes : 

 " I am game watcher to Lord Londesborough, and have been 

 for over twenty years in his lordship's service, and I have 

 seen a good deal of destruction of sea-birds, and have lived 

 in the neighbourhood the greater part of my life, and shall 

 be very glad to give you all the information I can, respecting 

 the destruction of sea-birds. I think it would be a very good 

 thing to prolong the preservation from the 1st of August to 

 the 1st of September, and I consider the month of August 

 is the very worst month in the year for the destruction of 

 sea-birds, for the greatest part of the young are helpless in 

 that month. After there has been a party of shooters, the 



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