8,356 since the passage of tbe Act. * * * 

 A vast difference is noted in the numbers 

 of this bird showing in southeastern 

 Alaska and it is a safe prediction that, 

 if the slaughter continues for a few years 

 longer, the species will become practi- 

 cally extinct. 



Ernest P. Walker, formerly ex- 

 ecutive officer of the Alaska Game 

 Commission, stated in 1927: 



The Eagle buunty system has consid- 

 erably reduced the Eagles in southeast- 

 ern Alaska in the ten years that it has 

 been in effect, and to a lesser degree it 

 has reduced Eagles along the southern 

 coastline westward as far as the Kadiak 

 region. It is doubtful, however, if the 

 birds have been materially reduced far- 

 ther westward, and evidence that they 

 have been materially affected through 

 the interior and northern country is 

 lacking. 



Hosea Sarber, an observant and 

 reliable game-management agent of 

 the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 stationed for many years at Peters- 

 burg, Alaska, commented (in corre- 

 spondence) on the possible effect of 

 the failure of the Legislature to 

 provide the necessary bounty funds 

 in 1941 and 1943, as follows : 



There is no question but that the eagle 

 will increase now to its former numbers. 

 They are still plentiful throughout the 

 country and they will now increase un- 

 molested as no one will be shooting 

 them * * *. 



There is little question but that 

 with the removal of possibly 100,000 

 birds during the years the bounty 

 laws were in operation the number 

 of eagles was noticeably reduced, at 

 least along the Southeastern Alaska 

 coast, where the population is con- 

 centrated. Farther to the west 

 where the birds are less abundant 



and certainly inland, where rela- 

 tively few exist, the effect on their 

 total number was never appreciable. 

 As with the operation of most 

 bounty systems, where the birds 

 were not abundant or where the 

 hunting pressure was limited, a 

 surviving nucleus remained. This 

 was true even in Southeastern 

 Alaska in the area of greatest hunt- 

 ing pressure. With the termination 

 of bounty hunting, the residual 

 eagle population can be expected to 

 recoup normal numbers within a 

 few years. That something of that 

 nature has taken place might be in- 

 ferred from the observations of 

 enforcement agent Clarence Mat- 

 son, who reported an estimated 750 

 eagles in the Haines area at the 

 northern end of the Lynn Canal 

 early in 1954. 



CANADA 



In British Columbia, bounties 

 were paid on golden eagles taken 

 during the period 1910 to 1924, but 

 in the course of this program pay- 

 ment no doubt had been made on 

 numbers of juvenile bald eagles. 

 Whereas $3 was paid in 1910, in 

 later years it was reduced to $1. 

 Even with the lessened payment, 

 7,095 eagles were reported to have 

 been killed in 1922. Subsequent to 

 1924 no bounties were paid on 

 eagles in British Columbia but 

 numbers of them were removed by 

 game wardens. Again, there may 

 have been bald eagles among the 

 total of 902 eagles killed in that 

 Province during the '5-year period, 

 1948-52. 



332664—55- 



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