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 Hfe 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 



