270 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
open season, but in view of the objects of the treaty and the 
experience that such restriction in the United States is 
increasing the supply of birds, this change will undoubtedly 
meet with the support of sportsmen desirous of preventing 
the continued decrease in the numbers of wild fowl. 
The conclusion of this convention constitutes the most 
important and far-reaching measure ever taken in the his- 
tory of bird protection. Some years ago efforts were made 
to secure the international protection of birds in Europe, 
but, while the general movement towards better protection 
for insectivorous birds was thereby furthered, the requisite 
co-operation on the part of all the countries interested was 
hampered by inactivity on the part of some of the govern- 
ments and a considerable diversity of interests and opinion. 
Fortunately many of these difficulties do not exist in North 
America, and in the United States and Canada there is an 
ever-growing sentiment in favour of preserving what is left 
of our former wealth of wild life which has been so seriously 
depleted by improvidence in the past. This international 
measure will affect over one thousand species and sub- 
species of birds from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Pole, 
and we may confidently look forward not merely to a cessa- 
tion of the decrease but to an increase of our migratory 
birds, which are so valuable a national asset. 
The following is the text of the Migratory Birds Con- 
vention: 
Whereas many species of birds in the course of their annual migrations 
traverse certain parts of the Dominion of Canada and the United States; 
and 
Whereas many of these species are of great value as a source of food 
or in destroying insects which are injurious to forests and forage plants 
on the public domain, as well as to agricultural crops, in both Canada 
and the United States, but are nevertheless in danger of extermination 
through lack of adequate protection during the nesting season or while 
on their way to and from their breeding grounds; 
His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
