182 DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



THE DIPPER OR WATER OUZEL (Cinclus clnclus] 



For years this lively little bird, whose presence brightens 

 the stretches of many a dull stream and river, has been an 

 object of persecution on the ground that it destroys the 

 spawn of salmon and other fish. On the Spey the slaughter 

 of a Water Ouzel during the fishing season used to be 

 rewarded by bestowing upon the slayer the right to fish 

 salmon with the rod during the close season an iniquitous 

 provision which has dropped into desuetude, but not before 

 the number of Dippers had been seriously reduced. On the 

 Sutherland estates of the Duchess of Sutherland a reward 

 of 6d. used to be paid for each Dipper slain, with the result 

 that from March 1831 to March 1834 "548 King's Fishers" 

 were slaughtered, "King Fisher" being a local name for 

 the Water Ouzel; and for the six years between 1873 anc ^ 

 1879 the vermin list of the Reay country, also in Sutherland, 

 included "368 Water Ouzels." Regret at the slaughter of 

 an interesting bird is intensified by the knowledge that its 

 actual food is not so much the spawn of fishes as the larvae 

 of dragon flies and water beetles, which themselves commit 

 serious havoc among the spawning beds. A little knowledge 

 of Natural History is a dangerous thing. 



It is no simple matter to reach an estimate of the influence 

 of man upon the numbers of vermin and pests, but every 

 dweller in the country and especially in game-preserving 

 districts knows that the destruction is no light one. That 

 the enemies of game, be they real or fancied, have been 

 reduced below the standard which Nature sets, is shown by 

 the unwonted increase of such "vermin" during the War 

 years, when gamekeepers have been called from their wonted 

 beats. Will the increase of the game-preserver's "vermin" 

 affect some of the smaller pests ? Can there be any doubt 

 that there is a close relationship between the decrease of the 

 beasts and birds of prey and the increase of the creatures 

 upon which they were accustomed to feed ? Has the game- 

 preserver not been too ready to shoot and too reluctant to 

 spare; has he not brought to earth such pest-destroyers 

 as the Honey Buzzard, the Kestrel and the Owls, simply 

 on the hearsay of a bad name? 



