Shooting Of Shags

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 72, 17 December 1938, Page 13

Shooting Of Shags

Sir,—There is really nothing to the point in Mr. Loughlin’s letter appearing in your issue of the 16th instant. My own assertions were: (1) J-hat the photograph of a shag bag appearing in an Auckland, paper consisted of pied shags which were marine feeders, and therefore not harmful to trout. This assertion has been verified by a prominent North Island authority. (2) _ That stomachic examination is a specialist s .work and that the stomach contents should be examined with a view to ascertaining the true economic status of the species and not merely, whether trout were consumed. A species of shag, lor instance, may be beneficial to trout propagation even though the stomach contained trout. I also stated that shooting nesting birds was cowardly and the antithesis of sportsmanship. ' Mr. Loughlin in his occupation as an anglers’ launchman has no doubt many opportunities of shooting shags and of then roughly examining their stomach contents, but if he was cognizant with the knowledge and the care which a trained expert has to exercise before a just conclusion can be arrived, at, he would not expect that any biologically , minded person would take his examination seriously.—l am, etc., ' E. V. SANDERSON; President, Forest and Bird Protection Society. December 16.