CORMORANT AND OTHER DIVERS 35 



may safely be said that he is responsible for the 

 destruction of fish to the value of several pounds 

 a day. 



If unmolested, a few cormorants .will ruin 

 any fresh- water fishing. A colony at one time 

 built in the trees at Lough Tawnyard, County 

 Mayo, where they played havoc among the 

 trout ; and for a time cormorants ruined the fish- 

 ing near Towyn, in Wales. These are merely 

 two examples of what has frequently happened, 

 because those interested in the fishing do not 

 fully realise the ways of the cormorants. If a 

 gang of poachers are found to be netting a water, 

 the owners immediately take measures to prevent 

 the poaching ; but a pair of cormorants will do 

 far more harm by their regular toll of the 

 trout than an occasional visit of the poacher. 

 Yet the cormorants are allowed to remain, 

 because it entails so much trouble to shoot 

 them ! 



Owners of salmon rivers have not in- 

 frequently taken combined action to improve 

 the run of fish, but they have seldom gone to 

 the trouble of preventing a flock of cormorants 

 fishing in the estuary during the time that smolts 

 are running down. Many thousands of prospec- 



