Vol. XXXIl TowNSEND, Conservation of the Eider. ^1 



and carefully guarded by one or two families who live on or near 

 the islands. These people should be allowed to take the first set 

 of eggs and down, as well as the down left behind after the duck 

 has hatched out the second set and has left for the season, but 

 should not be allowed the use of fire arms, and their Eskimo dogs 

 must be confined during the nesting season. In other words these 

 people must not frighten the birds and must treat them kindly. 

 The object of the experiment should be spread broadcast along the 

 coast with the request for fair play, so as to restrain others from 

 poaching and frightening the ducks on the reservation. 



The rapidity with which the birds will respond to this treatment 

 and the intelligence they will display in the recognition of the safety 

 spots will surprise the people. This is the case wherever bird reser- 

 vations are established. At Ipswich, Massachusetts, the shores 

 of a small, protected pond are thronged with shore birds of many 

 species which display almost no fear of man, while on the neighbor- 

 ing beaches, where they are shot, they are very wary. In the city 

 of Boston the Charles River Basin and Jamaica Pond are the 

 resort of numerous ducks that pay but little attention to the peo- 

 ple, while in the sea and ponds nearby, where shooting is allowed, 

 the ducks show their usual wildness. 



It is useless to pass laws if they are not observed or if the senti- 

 ment of the community is against them. This reform, which wUl 

 be of such great value to our northern sea-coast, can only be accom- 

 plished by education, and these bird reservations with their Eider- 

 farms will be one of the best means to that end. It is for this pur- 

 pose that I have written this and have quoted the convincing ex- 

 periences of the natives of Iceland and Norway; and I hope that 

 through the Moravians and Dr. Grenfell and the Catholic and other 

 missionaries of Labrador, and the factors of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company's Posts, and the independent fur-traders, and through 

 the press of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and especially through 

 the Governor General of Newfoundland and the Lieutenant Gov- 

 ernor of Quebec, to all of whom I intend to send this little tract, 

 the people will understand the great need and value of the con- 

 servation of the Eider. 



