OCCASIONAL NOTES. 223 
“ Hoodcock” for Woodcock, ‘Hood Dove” for Wood Dove, &c.—G. G. 
Litre. 
[We shall be very glad to receive other provincial lists from any 
correspondents who may be disposed to forward them.—Eb. | 
Destruction oF SaxELL-risH By SEA-Brrps.— At an inquiry held 
recently by Messrs. Buckland and Walpole into the condition of the sea- 
fisheries of Morecambe Bay and the estuary of the Duddon, a good deal of 
attention was directed to the alleged diminution in the supply of shell-fish, 
especially cockles, in the locality. At the Furness Abbey inquiry the 
importance of this branch of the subject was set forth at the outset of the 
proceedings by Sir James Ramsden, Managing Director of the Furness 
Railway, whose evidence showed that, exclusive of local consumption, no 
less than 2254 tous of cockles, valued at £11,270, were carried over a 
portion of the line during 1877. A letter was also read which stated on 
good authority that more than £10,000 worth of cockles had been gathered 
in a year on Kent's Bank alone. The bulk of the evidence tended to prove 
that, in the same way as is the case with the flat-fish, cockles and mussels 
are annually decreasing in numbers, and the seafaring witnesses seemed 
unanimous in attributing this decrease, amongst other causes, to the 
depredations of sea-birds, which are said to have multiplied exceedingly 
since the passing of the Act for their protection in 1869. As this charge 
is a very serious one, as far as the birds are concerned, and may possibly 
lead to some alterations in the laws for their protection, perhaps I may be 
excused from offering a few remarks with a view to inducing others to state 
their views on the subject. That sea-birds do eat cockles (to which, as being 
the most valuable of the different varieties of shell-fish alluded to in the 
inquiry, I shall confine my remarks) is proved beyond shadow of doubt, and 
we can readily believe that their consumption is very great. According to 
the reports in the local papers, gulls alone were referred to as the offenders, 
Herring Gulls and Black-backs being specially alluded to. The Black- 
headed Gull, which breeds in countless thousands at various spots in the 
neighbourhood of Morecambe Bay, was not, as a rule, included amongst 
the accused, though one witness asserted that this species is in the habit of 
carrying the cockles into the air, and dropping them on a stone, in order to 
get at their contents (the larger species are said to swallow them whole). 
But it must be evident to anyone who has taken an interest in the subject, 
that the gulls are by no means the worst: offenders. Oystercatchers, 
enormous flocks of which frequent the sands throughout the year and breed 
in large numbers on the coast, live entirely on shell-fish, and it is quite 
possible that cockles, at any rate when they are only as large as small peas, 
form a large proportion of the food of the numerous waders, from the 
