Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/245

Rh "Hoodcock" for Woodcock, "Hood Dove" for Wood Dove, &c.—

[We shall be very glad to receive other provincial lists from any correspondents who may be disposed to forward them.— ]

—At an inquiry held recently by Messrs. Buckland and Walpole into the condition of the sea-fisheries of Morecambe Bay and the estuary of the Duddon, a good deal of attention was directed to the alleged diminution in the supply of shell-fish, especially cockles, in the locality. At the Furness Abbey inquiry the importance of this branch of the subject was set forth at the outset of the proceedings by Sir James Ramsden, Managing Director of the Furness Railway, whose evidence showed that, exclusive of local consumption, no less than 2254 tons of cockles, valued at £11,270, were carried over a portion of the line during 1877. A letter was also read which stated on good authority that more than £10,000 worth of cockles had been gathered in a year on Kent's Bank alone. The bulk of the evidence tended to prove that, in the same way as is the case with the flat-fish, cockles and mussels are annually decreasing in numbers, and the seafaring witnesses seemed uuanimous in attributing this decrease, amougst other causes, to the depredations of sea-birds, which are said to have multiplied exceedingly since the passing of the Act for their protection in 1869. As this charge is a very serious one, as far as the birds are concerned, and may possibly lead to some alterations in the laws for their protection, perhaps I may be excused from offering a few remarks with a view to inducing others to state their views on the subject. That sea-birds do eat cockles (to which, as being the most valuable of the different varieties of shell-fish alluded to in the inquiry, I shall confine my remarks) is proved beyond shadow of doubt, and we can readily believe that their consumption is very great. According to the reports in the local papers, gulls alone were referred to as the offenders, Herring Gulls and Black-backs being specially alluded to. The Blackheaded Gull, which breeds in countless thousands at various spots in the neighbourhood of Morecambe Bay, was not, as a rule, included amongst the accused, though one witness asserted that this species is in the habit of carrying the cockles into the air, and dropping them on a stone, in order to get at their contents (the larger species are said to swallow them whole). But it must be evident to anyone who has taken an interest in the subject, that the gulls are by no means the worst offenders. Oystercatchers, enormous flocks of which frequent the sands throughout the year and breed in large numbers on the coast, live entirely on shell-fish, and it is quite possible that cockles, at any rate when they are only as large as small peas, form a large proportion of the food of the numerous waders, from the