26 
NATURE NOTES 
in early life. These little sharks attack and devour every living 
thing they find small enough, and consume not only quantities 
of ova, but also much food the trout would eat. “ Millers’ 
thumbs ” with their capacious mouths, which lurk among the 
pebbles where small trout live, are sad culprits. Eels, too, 
are to be added to the black list, as well as many other fish 
whose ways are too well known to need words from me. 
It is gratifying to know that pike are kept in check by such 
feeble creatures as tadpoles, which eat great quantities of their 
spawn. As the spawn of frogs and toads can easily be conveyed 
to places where pike breed, this habit of the tadpole may be 
turned to useful purpose. 
Trout are cannibals, and it is a moot question whether in 
some waters large trout should not be systematically destroyed. 
Many Dartmoor fishermen are in favour of killing them. They 
say that fish in their streams of i lb. to 2 lbs. weight are 
hardly ever caught by ordinary means, and live entirely on their 
own brethren. A 2-lb. Devon trout is probably responsible for 
the death of several stone’s weight of his own kind. I have no 
strong opinion on this matter, and merely state what has been 
said to me by those who ought to know. 
Of birds, that delightful diving thrush, the dipper, is some- 
times thought to be harmful. This I cannot second. His 
presence on a trout stream is for good and not for ill. The 
dipper’s food consists of those insects and their larvae, which I 
have just denounced. If anyone will take the trouble to examine 
their droppings on a mid-stream stone he will find they contain 
the remains of aquatic Coleoptera, Heteroptera and their larvae, 
and such-like, but no traces of those of fish. Who ever saw a 
dipper emerge from a brook with a fish wriggling in his bill ? I 
most certainly have not. 
The kingfisher we know feeds on fish, and yet even in 
company with trout a word may be said in his favour. I speak 
not of his beauty or the charm of his presence. Where does he 
fish ? Not in the shallow ripples where the little trout lie safe 
among the pebbles, but in the more quiet and deep water, 
where are to be found stickle-backs and coarse fish fry, of which 
he takes frequent toll, and whose ranks he thins. The law 
does well in throwing protection round the kingfisher. 
It is quite impossible to shut one’s eyes to the havoc herons 
cause among trout. They are impartial in pursuit of prey. Be 
it water-rat, frog, eel, or any other fish up to a pound’s weight, 
let it but come within striking distance and it is sure to be 
seized. I have seen too many trout that have been stabbed by 
his fatal bill not to know the truth. And yet who would wish 
to exterminate the heron ? Who has not associated him with 
his day’s fishing, and would not be loth to miss him from his 
familiar haunts } I will be candid enough to confess that on 
some streams, though on by no means all, I have met rather too 
many of this fine bird. 
