26 CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



UNAPPRECIATED FRIENDS.* 



By John G. Tyler. 



It is a well established fact that any disturbance of natural conditions 

 in a given area, whether brought about bv drainage, irrigation, defor- 

 estation or a change in crops or natural products, has a marked, and 

 sometimes immediate effect, upon the Flora and Fauna of that region, 

 and this has been demonstrated in a very striking manner in the San 

 Joaquin Valley, where we are accustomed to do large things and to do 

 them quickly. In this valley, when we speak of an irrigation project, 

 it is usually not in terms of acres or hundreds of acres, but of thousands 

 of acres. The effect of draining large areas of marsh land and convert- 

 ing such tracts into grain fields has been to metamorphose completely 

 the wild life of such places, while the constant transformation of pre- 

 viously uncultivated tracts into fruit orchards and alfalfa fields has 

 brought about equally startling changes. 



In days not long passed stock raising was the principal occupation in 

 many parts of the San Joaquin Valley and among our older residents 

 there are still not a few who can recall the time when magpies were as 

 common as sparrows and the sight of glistening flocks of snowy egrets 

 Avas an everyday occurrence. Then, too, the great California vulture, 

 or condor, swept over the valley searching for carrion on which to feed 

 before returning to its favorite cliffs in the Coast Range Mountains. 

 Dr. Heermann, a naturalist with one of the parties of the Pacific rail- 

 road surveys, recorded in 1859, that they found the bald eagle in the 

 Tulare Valley, on the borders of large lakes, and in one place counted 

 three nests within sight of each other. The accounts of these explorers 

 are most interesting reading, but we can not escape a feeling of sadness 

 as we realize that these and many other birds have all l)ut disappeared 

 forever from nearly every section of our country. 



The stock men did not hesitate to destroy eagles at every opportunity 

 because occasionally a lamb was carried away or a weakling calf was 

 killed, albeit the eagle much preferred a diet of fish or the ducks and 

 coots which he could pick up along the streams and ponds. The destruc- 

 tion of magpies and condors, however, was brought about by wilful 

 carelessness and indifference, for the condors, especially, lived almost 

 entirely upon carrion and could not be charged Avith destroying either 

 .stock or wild game. It was poison indiscriminately placed in the car- 

 casses of cattle and sheep to kill covotes, lions and other animals that 

 decimated the ranks of these splendid birds, and had not stock raising 

 given away to grain farming, California Avould soon have lost its right 

 to claim the largest North American bird. 



With the advent of vast fields of grain a new set of problems began 

 to confront the settler and the large carnivorous animals were no longer 

 a menace. However, new enemies soon appeared in the shape of ground 

 squirrels, gophers, mice and rabbits which annually destroyed untold 

 bushels of grain. But, here again a lack of foresight was manifested, 

 for instead of exterminating these rodents, we began a concerted perse- 

 cution of the very creatures that fed upon them. Golden eagles and the 

 large sloAV-flying hawks sought the squirrels by daj^, and at night several 



*Reprinted by permission of the author from The Joaquin, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 7, 8. 



