42 ANIMAL LIFE UNDER WATER 



remains of six or seven blennies and fifty 

 otoliths. A month later I examined two other 

 little grebes shot on the same water; one con- 

 tained twenty shrimps (Pandalus annulicomis) 

 and two to three hundred mysids, the second bird 

 contained fifteen shrimps and about one hundred 

 mysids. Though dabchicks devour enormous 

 quantities of small fish whenever these are avail- 

 able, they also eat large quantities of insects, 

 including the larvae of the dragon fly and of the 

 great water beetle (Dysticus)^ both of which 

 insects are detrimental to fish culture. This fact 

 is always put forward as an argument in favour 

 of the dabchick, but it must be remembered that 

 if a dabchick gets on to ponds or water where 

 there are trout fry, the bird is going to have the 

 fish first. 



I find on referring to my records that I have 

 only examined the contents of some fifty divers, 

 because these examinations merely confirmed 

 what is already known — viz. that divers devour 

 enormous quantities of fish. 



Though the feeding habits of divers probably 

 have very little influence when these birds feed 

 in the open sea, the destruction of enormous 

 numbers of spawning fish in shallow waters round 



