264 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
Apart from the fact that certain parts of the Yukon Terri- 
tory contain some of the finest moose in the Dominion, the 
Territory cannot afford to have its game resources unneces- 
sarily wiped out in such amanner. The situation demands 
immediate and stern action before it is too late to prevent 
the inevitable consequences. 
THE MIGRATORY BIRDS CONVENTION 
For many years the numbers of our migratory birds, such 
as ducks, geese, insectivorous birds, and shore-birds, which 
class includes the plovers, sandpipers, snipe, woodcock, etc., 
have been decreasing. This decrease is a matter of com- 
mon knowledge and observation throughout the Dominion. 
Certain of these migratory birds, such as the Eskimo curlew, 
which formerly existed in enormous numbers and was killed 
for the market, the Labrador duck, the passenger pigeon, 
and the great auk have now become extinct. Others, such 
as the whooping crane and the wood duck, the most beau- 
tiful of our native ducks, have become so reduced in num- 
bers as to render their continued existence without further 
protection a matter of doubt. 
From a national standpoint the prospect of this continued 
decrease involved serious economic consideration. Leaving 
out of account the value from an esthetic point of view of 
this portion of our Canadian wild life, great as that is, and 
regarding it as an economic asset to the country, we were 
faced with the gradual reduction of our migratory wild 
fowl, whose value as food and as means of securing recreation 
is inestimable, and of our insectivorous birds, which are of 
even greater importance to the welfare of our agricultural 
interests. | 
Insectivorous birds constitute one of the chief natural 
agencies controlling insect pests affecting field crops, or- 
chards, and forests. In field crops alone the annual loss 
