Birds that ark Land and Water Feeders. 1 1 1 



numerous gulls. The presence in one of them of a quantity 

 of the May fly, or green drake, led him to remark that this 

 insect is of great importance to fishing in lochs and rivers; 

 and that many fishings have suffered severely through its 

 destruction by the black-headed gull. The star fish, a 

 number of which figured in the gulls' food-list, was char- 

 acterised as very destructive of whelks and oysters, and 

 working havoc on mussel beds. It seemed impossible 

 that such a creature could penetrate a mussel shell ; but it 

 simply enveloped the mussel — took the whole thing inside 

 him ; the gastric juices did the rest ; and the shell was ejected 

 when the mussel had been absorbed. Wire-worms, he re- 

 marked, were not often found in the adult black-headed gull, 

 but they were very common in the stomachs of their nestlings. 

 A group of fish taken from one gull's stomach included one 

 with a hook in its mouth and part of the angler's line attached. 

 One black-headed gull was found to have fed almost exclu- 

 sively on fresh water shell fish. 



cormorant and heron. 



Turning to the Cormorant, Mr Armistead observed that 

 it was capable of taking 14 lbs. weight of fish in a day, and he 

 did not often miss doing it. And often many of these fish 

 were young salmon. 



The Heron, of which some pictures were shown, was 

 described as feeding almost as much on the land as in the 

 water, but its depredations as a destructive bird are 

 chiefly from the water. He took small rabbits, rats, and 

 nestlings which he found on the river bank ; but as a fish- 

 catcher he excelled. The Heron on the watch, he pointed out, 

 had a great reserve of neck to dart out when he observed his 

 quarry ; and the strike of a Heron was just about as swift as 

 the flight of a shot from a gun. 



kingfisher. 

 A Kingfisher was shown on the watch, then capturing and 

 swallowing a fish about as long as himself, and finally in a 

 very self-satisfied attitude resting on a branch. One King- 



