Birds that are Land and Water Feeders. 137 



is no longer true to-day. There is no doubt whatever thai 

 the feeding habits of very many birds have changed and are 

 changing. This is apparently due to necessity. Increased 

 numbers means a decrease in the supply and a keener com- 

 petition. In many directions, too, there are increased oppor- 

 tunities for the procuring of good food that has not hitherto 

 formed part of the normal diet. Hunger, that greatest of all 

 the compelling forces which have influenced creatures 

 possessed of a brain, has driven many kinds of birds to experi- 

 ment with other foods. Many species that in the past have 

 not been known to compete with man for the products of the 

 earth are now known to do so. 



In illustration of this point I may mention that during a 

 prolonged frost the blackbirds standing on the edge of the 

 thin ice on the hatching ponds at the Bute Fishery picked out 

 the small fish. One of the birds ha\ing made the experi- 

 ment, and found that the food was a\ailable and good, its 

 example was followed by hundreds. C5n the return of genial 

 weather, they went back to their natural food ; but the lesson 

 had not been lost on them, and now it does not require a 

 heavy snowstorm or a prolonged frost to cause them to 

 return to feed on the fish ; they do it as soon as ice is 

 formed. A robin also discovered the game and introduced 

 it to his fellows ; and now as soon as the eggs are hatched 

 we have a considerable percentage of the robins of the 

 Stewartry coming down on them. I am afraid we shall 

 also have to condemn the wagtails. During the last two 

 or three years they had seen reason to suspect them of 

 taking fish ; and the worst of it is that, once they begin, 

 they do not take the thing in moderation. Crows also may 

 be seen wading — ^•ery awkwardly — in the sliallow water at 

 the sea-shore picking up food. 



There is another point which we must not lose sight of 

 in forming an estimate of the cost to man of this great and 

 increasing army of gulls. This is the part of their diet which 

 consists of creatures taken from the water. I have direct 

 evidence to put before you to-night, by means of photographs 

 and specimens, of what a gull takes from the water as well 

 as from the land. 



