610 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



Passenger Pigeon that the bird is now unknown in localities where it 

 once abounded. Year by year the Halibut is growing scarcer and 

 scarcer, and year by year the Lobster canneries find an increasing diffi- 

 culty in obtaining necessary supplies, while there is already a dearth of I 

 Oysters in the once seemingly inexhaustible waters of Chesapeake 

 Bay. The Atlantic Salmon is practically kept from extermination in 

 the waters of the United States by the efforts of the U. S. Fish Commis- 

 sion, and the same is true of the Shad in many localities, while much 

 attention is being paid to the artificial cultivation of Cod in order to pre- 

 serve the inshore fisheries.* 



One reason for this growing depletion is to be found in the common 

 and fatal fallacy that because some animals exist in large numbers, the 

 supply is unlimited and the species needs no protection, a belief that 

 is usually acted upon until the species is verging on extinction. Unfor- 

 tunately, too,those most directly interested in the preservation of game — 

 using the term in the widest sense— are usually the most bitter opponents 

 of any protective measures, especially if the change will produce even a 

 temporary inconvenience. The proposed reduction in number and 

 change in location of nets in a certain Canadian Salmon stream met 

 with vigorous protests from the fishermen; yet, a few years after the 

 passage and enforcement of laws making the alterations, the catch of 

 fish had increased tenfold. Cases exactly similar to this may be met 

 with everywhere, and any attempt to enforce a close season, allow fish 

 free access to their spawning beds, or to protect them when there, is 

 almost certain to meet with strenuous opposition from local pot hunters 

 and fishermen. The Michigan pigeon-catchers insist that it does no 

 harm to take Pigeons in the nesting seasou, provided traps or gnus are 

 not used too near the breeding places; the Potomac fishermen complain 

 bitterly because they are not allowed the privilege of preventing all 

 Shad and Herring from ascending to the spawning ground ; and the lob- 

 ster catchers and dealers object to laws prohibiting the capture and sale 

 of Lobsters under a certain size. All this is short sighted in the last 

 degree, and yet as previously stated, those who should be found on the 

 side of the law are only too often arrayed against it. Fashion is prin- 

 cipally concerned in the destruction of fur-bearing mammals and birds 

 for millinery purposes, although alligators, crocodiles, and of late vari- 

 ous reptiles have come into vogue for the manufacture of fancy leather, 

 and the demand for "novelties" seems on the increase. In 1885 Pec- 

 caries were so abundant in the counties of Medina, Uvalde, and Zavalla, 

 Texas, that their well-worn trails were everywhere to be seen, while 



'During the winter of 1889-'90 about 130,000,000 eggs of Cod, Haddock, and Pollack 

 were brought to the hatcheries of Gloucester and Wood's Holl. Previous labors of 

 tbe Fish Commission are already bringing about visible results and young cod are 

 now plentiful where they were previously scarce or even unknown. 



A somewhat amusing incident was the sending of young Cod from Plymouth, Mas- 

 sachusetts, to Gloucester for identification, the Plymouth fisherman having forgotten 

 what they looked like. 



