326 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Tuesday) was literally swarming with these fish, 

 and millions of them have from first to last 

 been captured. Hundreds of people lined both 

 banks of the river on successive days, and came 

 away with bags, baskets, and boxes laden %\ith 

 the herrings ; hundreds of young people, while 

 wading along the margin of the river, picked up 

 armfuls of the fish ; parties cruising about on the 

 river gathered up the herrings as rapidly as they 

 chose with their hands from the side of their 

 small boats ; parties in Alloa, Kincardine, Kennet, 

 Alva, Tillicoultry and Stirling, obtained cart- 

 loads of them, and sold them to ready purchasers ; 

 and numbers of the fish were destroyed by the 

 paddles of the Stirling steamers." 



In considering the birds, we notice a great differ- 

 ence in the way in which their death-rate is affected 

 by storm. The destruction caused by the united 

 efforts of wind and wave is, in the case of fishes 

 and of invertebrates, direct ; whilst in birds, though 

 oftentimes severe, it is indirect. Repeatedly I have 

 traversed the shore in search of birds cast up as 

 waifs after storms, and I have been qtdte surprised 

 at the almost entire absence of such ; but when I 

 have returned by the same way two or three v,-eeks 

 after the storm, I have found birds in abundance 

 along the tide-edge. Though the storm brings 

 the birds nearer shore, it does not directly destroy 

 them ; the birds struggle on sometimes for weeks 

 against death, but often succimib finally through 

 sheer exhaustion. In some way or other the 

 storm affects their food- supply, and starvation 

 seems in most cases to be the direct cause of 

 death. Sometimes giiillemots are met with Iving 

 on the sand or sitting upright beneath the sea- 

 bank, and when touched they show fight bravely ; 

 but these birds are beyond hope, ha%-ing been 

 borne helplessly to land after resisting star^-ation 

 as long as they could ; sometimes too the razorbills 

 close inshore are seen to struggle ^-iolently in their 

 efforts to dive, displa3-ing their inability to perform 

 their ordinarj- functions without the greatest 

 labour. 



Though there are outstanding instances of great 

 losses of bird-life, such as that v\-liich took place in 

 the beginning of 1S95, yet few seasons pass vdthout 

 mmor wrecks of life taking place. In the majority 

 of cases, the species that suffer most terribly belong 

 to the family of the Alcidae, though sea-birds of 

 other families are often met vsith in the hosts of 

 storm-tossed waifs. During the present winter I 

 have found, lying dead on the tide-line, nineteen 

 species of birds in my occasional rambles along the 

 Forth shores. As usual, guillemots and razorbills 

 prevailed throughout the area examined. These two 

 species are sometimes destroyed in great numbers, 

 succumbing to the after-effects of the storm. Thev 

 contain nothing in their stomachs save a little black 

 oily fluid, and have occasionally parasitic worms in 



their gullets. Along with these species puffins are 

 found on some parts of our coasts, but here the 

 pu— r. is a rare waif ; I noticed only one this season. 



A minor destruction of little auks — mainly notice- 

 able during the first half of February — has again 

 taken place along our east coast. One Edinburgh 

 bird-stuffer received nineteen specimens, all of 

 which, with one exception, were females. On 

 February 4 th I was out in search of this bird on 

 the West Lothian foreshore, which proved a very 

 productive area during the 1S95 incursion, and I 

 found three individuals all more or less mutilated 

 by carrion feeders. On thefollo\\'ing day I crossed 

 to Fife on a like errand and picked up seven 

 specimens. Not one of these latter had been 

 touched b%- the carrion feeders, which was suflicient 

 proof of their freshness. In two cases the birds 

 seemed to have dropped just before I found them ; 

 thej- lay with their wings half-spread and their 

 plumage unruffled, ha\dng unwillingly come to land 

 after baffling with the storms of the North Sea, and 

 settled in the most peaceful attitude possible, 

 sinking through sheer exhaustion. 



The most important waif, to me, during the 

 season has been the fulmar petrel, a specimen of 

 which I picked up on the East Lothian foreshore 

 on December 15th last. The bird had lain only a 

 few days, but had been so mutilated by the hooded 

 crows as to be rendered useless for preservation ; it 

 provided me, however, with skull and breast-bone. 

 This ocean bird of powerful flight is occasionally 

 driven into the Forth, but this is the first occasion 

 on v.-hich I have personally met vnth it here. 



In connection with some of these birds, little auk 

 chiefly, the conclusion is impressed upon one that 

 such indi^-iduals as happen to be driven from their 

 normal ocean haunts to our shores in \\-inter never 

 again return, though the}' succeed in baffling their 

 fate for a time. Razorbills and guillemots, though 

 not so strictly oceanic, may often be seen close to 

 the shore in such attitudes as imply their impending 

 doom, and indi^-iduals continue to die long after 

 the first disturbing' cause has passed off, whilst the 

 extended time throughout which little auks during 

 a 'severe v.reck of hfe continue to be thrown up 

 shows that a similar state of affairs prevails ^vith 

 respect to these birds. A friend in Shetland, 

 writing in connection with this subject, says : " I 

 remember ha\-ing watched from da}' to day three 

 little auks in a quiet bay near Lerwick, in iS5o, and 

 although they seemed to be very lively for about a 

 v^-eek, they gradually became more feeble, and in 

 the course of three v.-eeks I found two of them lying 

 dead upon the beach and the third in a dying 

 condition close to the water's edge." This is 

 typical of the fate of the majoritj', if not of the 

 v.hole, of the little auks seen oft"-shore in -winter. 



J.6. Cumberland Street. Edinburgh ; 

 April 3rd, 1897. 



