CANADA’S BIRD LIFE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 October 1924, Page 15

CANADA’S BIRD LIFE.

PRESERVATION that pays . culture is assuming a place of importance in the conservation of natuzal recources in the Dominion of Canada, statec the New York Times. I his does not mean a sudden development of the esthetic sense, though the Canadian is by no means slow to appreciate the beauties of the birds that come in the spring. Nor is there the motive the sportsman might immediately divine, the Canadian i s not yet obsessed with the idea that more birds must be hatched so that more may be shot Birds are infinitely more desireable to them alive and in full possession of their powers. There is a job for them in natural economy a job big enough for millions and millions more than now exist in the Dominion. The country -i s suffering from a decided shortage of bird labour. It is estimated that growincr crops valued at 100,000,000 dollars are destroyed every year in Canada by insect pests. Human ways of getting rid of these pests are expensive. A simpler and cheaper way is to give the birds the responsibility. Here lies the difficulty. Flocks have shrunk until many varieties are becoming extinct. Large districts have not nearly all the birds their insect life could support and their people urgently need. One of the obstacles to the proper protection of Canada’s bird life, it is said, is the attitude of the farmers. Many of them do not realise their dependence on the feathered creatures. Ignorant of the evidence offered by reliable authorities that birds destroy crops only when their natural food is lacking, they intentionally destroy the birds’ feeding'grounds in draining swamps and mailing other improvements. But disinterested citizens are putting bird culture on the businesslike basis in the Dominion, in pursuance of the Migratory Birds Act of less than a decade ago. - The essential of adequate propagation of bird life, Canada has found, is ample opportunity for nesting undisturbed. This has been provided in practically every province through the establishment of bird sanctuaries, many of which are operaed in conjunction with the Dominion Parks Branch; Perce. Bird Rock in the ; Magda lens, and portions of Bonaventitre Island, off the Gaspe coast in the Province of Quebec) have been thus set aside. The killing or huting of birds is also prohibited at Rideau Island and Lake Newell in Alberta, Last Mountain Lake in Saskatchewan, and Jack Miner’s farm and the Municipal Park at Niagara Falls, Ontario.