274 THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



the salt water^ it maybe conjectured that their adversaries 

 here are not less active and numerous than those of the 

 river. I have not included the Water-ouzel in the list of 

 the undoubted riflers of spawning-beds. Formerly, from 

 having been in the habit of watching them working about 

 over the gravel of such spots, I was of opinion that their 

 object was certainly to get at the eggs there deposited; but 

 the recent examinations which Mr. Buckland has made of 

 the crops of some of these birds — shot, as I should have 

 said a few months ago, in flagrante delicto — without in 

 any case discovering a trace of ova, lead me to doubt the 

 truth of the allegations hitherto made against them. 



The contents of the crop were, in every instance, found to 

 consist almost wholly of beetles and other aquatic insects, 

 which it seems probable were engaged in destroying ova 

 at the time of being themselves seized by the Water-ouzel ; 

 but whether, in delving amongst the gravel for these in- 

 sects, the bird does not at the same time expose the ova 

 below to other enemies, appears to be a somewhat perti- 

 nent question. There is no doubt that the proprietors of 

 the Spey salmon-fishings formerly rewarded the destroyer of 

 a Water-ouzel with permission to fish during "close-time." 



A remarkable instance of the havoc committed amongst 

 unhatched eggs by the Trout was lately communicated 

 to me by the Keeper of the Thames Angling Preservation 

 Society at Hampton. When employed during the past 

 season in procuring Trout-ova in a stream at High Wy- 

 combe, he observed a pair of Trout spawning on a shallow 



