174 THE ANGLER AND HUNTSMAN 



and they doubtless are of great value to agriculture, as most 

 seed-eating birds are. But great though all the other rea- 

 sons for desiring their presence may be, there is the crown- 

 ing reason in the fact that tired and worn-out humanity 

 can, by the exhilarating sport they afford, alleviate, or at 

 least offset some of the nervous strain to which the average 

 business man of this age is subject. 



The flesh of wild fowl constituted an important item of 

 diet in the larder of the. aborigines of this country, who, by 

 means of the bow and arrow we have already described, and 

 also by the use of numerous other devices, nets and traps, 

 succeeded in obtaining them in considerable numbers, es- 

 pecially when they were young and unable to elude capture 

 by flight. The Eskimo and northern Indians, in fact, would 

 fare badly but for the great numbers of waterfowl that visit 

 their country annually to breed, and their eggs are also 

 sought by the natives with avidity. The first settlers also 

 found waterfowl a necessary addition to their larders, and, 

 insofar as game was concerned, the fowling piece early be- 

 came a more important part of the settler's equipment than 

 his rifle. 



However, neither the natives or the settlers appreciably 

 reduced the numbers of ducks and geese that at given per- 

 iods covered the lakes, ponds, rivers and marshes of this fa- 

 vored land. The fact is, it was not until the perfection of 

 that potent engine of destruction, the breech-loading shot- 

 gun, that waterfowl began to decrease at an alarming rate. 

 This was due, not alone to the breech-loader, but to the ever 

 increasing population with a consequent increase both in 

 number of sportsmen and market gunners. 



So rapidly are some species decreasing in certain States 

 that the supply is already threatened, and stringent la\vs 

 have been found necessary. The migratory bird law, a 

 widely discussed and often criticised measure, has already 

 proven its worth, and within a few years, with the abolish- 

 ment of spring shooting, the supply of ducks and geese will 



