DESTRUCTION OF TROUT. |

Otago Witness, Issue 2860, 6 January 1909, Page 64

DESTRUCTION OF TROUT. |

THE SHAG DEFENDED. (From Our Own- Correspondent ) CHRISTCHURCH, December 30. Mr Edgar F. Stead is a profound disbeliever in the alleged trout-destroying propensities of the shag, and in a letter in to-day's Press he replies to a statement by Mr A. H. Shury, a well-known angling enthusiast of Ashburton, that a shag will eat about 91b or 101b weight , ' of trout in a day, with an eel or two to fill up. " I will make Mr Shury the following challenge," writes Mr Stead :—: — ; " I will catch two shags (young, lull : giown, or old birds, as Mr Shury wishes), ' { keep them in a 'suitable pond for a month, or as much longer as Mr Shury i : lancies they would require, to get used to captivity, feeding them reasonably dm 1 - ' ing that time. At the end of that period we will feed them each with 91b weight oi Jive trout in units of £)b or more, a~cordtc Mr Shury 's choice, for seven conpecnine days, and if either of the birds eats ■ the full amount of fish every day, then 1 will pay all expenses and foileit any

sum that Mr Shury selects between £5 and £50 to the Ashburton Acclimatisation Society, provided that should neither ot the birds be capable of eating the fish Mr Shury pays the expenses and forfeits the given sum to the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society. It seems to me that I stand a pretty fair chance of going down if Mr Slurry's statement is anywhere near correct. Personally, I don't think it is. The Greendale correspondent of the Press states that during the past week or two a Greendale man has shot nine shags, all containing trout, and a tenth one on being shot immediately disgorged a live trout about three-quarters of a pound in weight.