NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



and digester, the locust bird of South Africa, a bird 

 of incredible help to the South African farmer and 

 the amount of damage he does is, in an over-fished 

 country, very serious. So much has this fact been 

 recognised of late, and so frequent have been the 

 complaints made within the last year or two against 

 the cormorants in the West of England, where their 

 numbers have greatly increased, that the Devon County 

 Council have now excluded these birds from their pro- 

 tected list under the Wild Birds Protection Acts. The 

 Exe Board of Conservators are but too fully aware of 

 the depredations of cormorants upon young Salmonidce 

 and other fish, and have for some time been taking 

 steps to reduce their numbers. Funds have been raised, 

 a campaign has been set on foot, and rewards are offered 

 for the destruction of these birds. The Dart Conserva- 

 tors have taken similar action, and offered a premium 

 of is. for every cormorant or shag killed in their district. 

 The cormorant, in whatever part of the world he lives 

 and whatever be his species, is an extraordinarily expert 

 fisherman and diver. He has a strong natural instinct 

 to devour, and the very presence of water, even without 

 the sign of a fish, at once arouses this desire. Colonel 

 Montagu once had a young cormorant in captivity. He 

 noted that, at the sight of water, the bird became rest- 

 less, and when liberated it dived incessantly for a con- 

 siderable time, until it had completely satisfied itself 

 that no fish were to be found. There seems to be no 

 reason to doubt Montagu's statement that an average 

 cormorant will easily devour and digest three or four 

 pounds of fish twice a day. It will be readily conceded 

 that when one of these birds can plunder the sea and 

 rivers of seven or eight pounds of fish during each day, 

 the toll taken annually in a single district where cor- 

 morants happen to be numerous must be enormous. 



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