MONEY IN BIRDS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 23 December 1913, Page 6

MONEY IN BIRDS.

Following a discussion of "Aerial Highways, 5' by which the air-men, of the future will be kept within certain tracks, the Scientific American pro- , feeds to an article headed "Enforcing; the Migratory Bird Regulations." Our first impression was that science contemplated layMg' the''same rtiles txpon wildrfowl—:that migration was only to , follow, certain bird-lines, or to' take plae» yrfyha, ;more .strict attention to dates.', vfcb . soon .appeared,. how,ever,' that the- theme was that which has engaged^ very ,nmch public i attention just! lately; tire Act~.wtocn, from Qctb- * bar Ist in.this year, Has p^acetl Federal ' restrictions -upon ;s»£ five'; JoaHlion, hun* te'rs of.the T'luteeTStaies. As another ' newspaper remarked, - "It. tpojc .America all the time fro.m the Articles of Confederation to the year, 1913 to grow wise enough to apply to ' inteistate bird-wealth the ..doctrine of interstate », commerce. \ Meantime the wealth it4, self had well-nigh disappeared*." The wild game of America helped to settle America. Wild fowLhave been invaluable as food, as a means of sport, as articles of commerce, and game killers have happily gone on treating the game supply as a mme 1 to be used until exhausted. When the best breedjnggrounds of the country became' almost , depopulated, still another mine of birdwe*lth remained. "Why worry? said the sportsman to the trader. "There are millions of acres of ' breedinggrounds in Northern Canada, in the Arctic wilderness, where no one will ever bother the birds." Canada does, in ■ fact, rear most of the wild fowl Americans kill to-day—and yet, little by little, even in Canada, word was passed that geese were scarce and ducks not so abundant 'as they ought to be; and it gradually dawned upon thinkers in the United State* that,, if you kill off all the grown birds that spend a half-year with you, they cannot go back to breed. Then individual 1 action was taken. Different States shortened their ' game seasons. , The movement for limited daily bags of '. game grew in different States. Private - game refuges gave.back a great many ,'- thousands of birds to Canada, which , would otherwise have been killed on <the ' * Louisiana coast. But the new national measure takes the responsibility off all States. It passes over to the Department of Agriculture the regulation of this migratory form of crop; and thi6 Department Tvas especially clear'-^ipon. -the fjreat fact that you cannot 'reap^inwithout sowing' at .all. *J^Sjft 1 framers* of- shooting jregttlations -cons ' 'now ©onsAdjer the quest-ibnfwith. a view . to justice t^f or-.botb. sportsmen- and . 'birds, „• enforcing ' the- necess&ry -'nrotec- ■ tfon, afc right- -'elates,, the , whole country. It may be-,tbo late for * the canvas-back duck "aiid t"ne,.wilS turkf"- but there will be joy in tha * Far Norths where Indians, traders,^and lesidents are wondering why ducks and , geese seem unreturning guests. Though, ,to be sure, old Peter Loutik. the champion goose-killer of Chippewayan, r'< ■ is said to have shot eight hundred and . .fifty white geese last season, putting them up for winter meat—and then he sighed that eport was not what it used to be, and he did not know1 what had- happened to the birds.