• ^'^-n From MiijiazUies, 



151 



From Magazines, &c. 



riic " Kcport (.r thr l>!(i\;il (■(.miiu^ioii on \'icl(iriaii l'Klirri(>" 

 makes good and iiistnu-tiw reading. Tlu- following K.A.O.l'. 

 members gave evidenee before tlie Commission, narncK- : Messrs. 

 A. W. Alexander, M.A., Dudley Le Souef, C.M.Z.S., A. H. E. 

 Mattingley, C.^I.Z.S., and Lient.-Col. Semmens, while Mr. R. H. 

 Croll, Assistant Editor of The Emu, was thanked by the Com- 

 missioners for " his earnest and skilful attention to tlie duties of 

 the Commission " as secretary. 



Naturally, the subject of " Cormorants " was dealt with, and 

 opinions of such observers as Mr. Donald Macdonald (the Argus) 

 and Mr. H. L. White, of Belltrces, were quoted ; but Mr. F. Esling 

 puts the case in the proverbial " nut-shell." He says (page 16) : — 

 " The natural increase of fish in the rivers is absolutely inadequate 

 to keep up the supply, even for food purposes — that is to say, 

 as settlement advances the rivers automaticall}^ become depleted. 

 That has been found in America from time to time, and it has 

 been the experience generally throughout the world. We have 

 found it here also." 



Appendix W., on " The Cormorant and its Diet," for interest, 

 is worth reprinting : — 



" 'Six. P. A. Taverner, one of tlie best known Canadian ornitliologists 

 and biologists (says Fishing Gazette^ has been investigating the habits 

 of tlie Cormorants of the estuary of tlie Gaspe River. At Perce ]\Ir. 

 Taverner found that the Cormorants nested only on the top of Perce 

 Rock, and he places the number breeding there at about 1,300. At 

 Gaspe Basin he foimd two colonies of 180 and 540 respectively. 

 Throughout the day all the Cormorants which are not incubating or 

 brooding young are found on the estuaries of the rivers, and their 

 feeding-grounds are the wide tidal areas which are just awash at low 

 tide, and covered by 2 or 3 feet of water at high tide. The food of 

 the Cormorant consists practically entirely of fish, and Mr. Taverner 

 found that one of these birds requires about 3 lbs. of fish per day. 

 He says : — ' Assuming two full meals per day per individual would 

 give for the Gaspe Basin 600 lbs. of fish per day consumed by Cor- 

 morants, or 45 tons per season. Should the Cormorants of Gaspe 

 turn their attention to fish of economic importance their possibilitv 

 of damage would be considerable.' 



" Mr. Taverner does not suggest that the Cormorants should be 

 exterminated. As our contemporary, the Canadian Fisherman, says : — 

 ' The fact of the matter is that the inter-relations of the various forms 

 of wild life are so complicated, so inextricably interwoven, that the 

 general public has no idea of them, and it often taxes the knowledge 

 and trained powers of observation of the biological expert to unravel 

 them. A species may seem to be useless or even harmful to man, 

 but if it is exterminated, or much reduced in numbers, we find, some- 

 times too late, that it had a definite function in the economy of 

 Nature, and that it kept in check some other species more injurious 

 than itself. Thus, the birds of prey, and some mammals, such as 

 foxes and weasels, are usually regarded as " vermin " — as forms of 

 life to be eliminated as far as possible. Yet, when this was done. 



