PROTECTION OF GAME AND WILD LIFE = 265 
in Canada due to the depredations of insect pests is, on a 
conservative estimate, not less than $125,000,000. And, 
with the development of the country, the damage caused 
by insect pests is increasing, while the numbers of insec- 
tivorous birds have been decreasing. 
The chief causes of this decrease in the numbers of our 
migratory birds are as follows: Canada constitutes the chief 
breeding-place for the greater number of these birds. With 
the settlement of the country the breeding-places of many 
species have been destroyed. The clearing of the land has 
involved the clearing of the nesting-sites of insectivorous 
birds; the draining of marshy areas and the settlement of 
the prairies have driven wild fowl from their former breed- 
ing and feeding places. Such causes are, therefore, unavoid- 
able to a large extent. On the other hand, while many of 
the provinces have excellent laws governing the protection 
of game, non-game, and insectivorous birds, it has not always 
been possible to give these birds adequate protection. The 
increase in the number of persons who carry guns, and the 
improvement of modern sporting-guns have had their effect 
on the abundance of wild fowl. 
Even with the strictest enforcement of protective laws 
Canadians would have been unable to prevent the con- 
tinued decrease of migratory birds unless the requisite pro- 
tection were given to such birds during thetime that they 
are in United States territory. In other words, our migra- 
tory birds cannot be adequately protected from continued 
decrease without co-operative protection in Canada and the 
United States. 
It is a well-known fact that while some of the States of the 
Union had excellent laws, which they enforced, others failed 
to protect their birds. In some States the shooting of wild 
fowl in the spring was permitted; this involved the killing 
of birds, usually mated at that time of the year, on their 
way to their breeding-grounds in the north. This discour- 
