196 Bird-Nesting 



young birds, for, as a rule, they are sure to pine away and 

 die. Although for years I have greatly enjoyed the pleasures 

 and excitement of egg collecting, still I have made it a rule 

 never to molest the young birds, as I consider we oologists do 

 sufficient injustice to our birds ^ to deprive them of their eggs 

 without taking their young ones also ; besides, the parent birds 

 are greatly distressed if their young be taken, and it is cruel 

 and gives the birds pain^; but I find from experience that 

 although a bird will make a fuss when the eggs are taken, she 

 soon forgets her trouble, and two or three days afterwards she 

 has commenced to build another nest, and in due time lays 

 another clutch of eggs. All birds, when robbed of their eggs, 

 lay a second or even a third clutch, so that taking their eggs 

 does not diminish our birds. It is quite another thing when 

 the birds are shot and thus prevented from breeding and in- 

 creasing. At the present day one out of every six youths, 

 especially in Canada, seems to possess a gun, and these pot- 

 hunters go out shooting every bird that comes in their way, 

 for no use whatever except idle sport, and this is the cause of 

 many of our once common birds becoming scarce. Every 

 ornithologist should make it a rule never to shoot at a bird 

 unless it is really wanted for a specimen. While I was away 

 in the wild North- West, I could have shot hundreds of birds, 

 but I never fired at a bird unless I wanted it for a specimen, 

 and I returned home with only some fifty skins. I also pre- 

 vented my guides from firing at birds for mere sport, and 

 rebuked them whenever I caught them doing this. Every 

 lover of birds should try and prevent our feathered friends 

 from being wantonly destroyed. 



Alter a long tramp, I reached Winnipeg at seven o'clock in 

 the evening, tired and hungry. The following afternoon found 

 rne seated in the railway train bound for Toronto, and three 

 days later I reached home, and thus my most enjoyable trip to 

 the North- West ended, and the following day found me back 

 at business and in harness once again. 



Eight months have since elapsed, and at the moment I write, 

 this vast northern country of which I have been writing and 

 describing its summer aspect, is at present icebound, with a 



