IHE WILD FAUNA OF THE EMPIRE 55 



The passenger-pigeon is practically extinct in America. I 

 adduce the same cause for its extinction. The net and the gun 

 depleted their ranks, but they could never have exterminated the 

 race. 



Against the practical extinction of the cariboo we can offset 

 the introduction and increase of our deer. Deer are not indigenous 

 to Nova Scotia, but a few years ago the Game Society imported 

 a few pairs, and turned them down in Digby County. I believe the 

 credit of this importation is largely due to Major Daley (of Digby) 

 and H. A. P. Smith (High Sheriff of Digby County). Mr. Smith 

 took an active part in catching the deer in the New Brunswick 

 woods. The New Brunswick authorities were kind enough to 

 accord the privilege of catching the deer to the Nova Scotia Game 

 Society. 



In spite of a certain amount of poaching, the deer have thriven 

 well. Nearly every game-warden makes mention of them in his 

 report. The fact that half a dozen pairs of deer have in ten years 

 managed to escape destruction by poachers, bears, wild-cats, and 

 disease, and to propagate to such an extent that no county in a 

 province as large as Wales is without representatives, augurs well 

 for the future of our Nova Scotian deer. I regret to say that many 

 deer have been killed. Some very heavy fines have been imposed 

 in flagrant cases, but a number of other cases have gone un- 

 punished. 



At the present time our large carnivora are represented by the 

 bear alone. Bears are scarce in all the counties of the Province. 

 They occasionally kill sheep and lambs, and now and then they 

 kill a moose or cariboo calf. They prefer a diet of fish and 

 berries to one of flesh, unless the meat is easy to obtain. The only 

 other carnivorous animal worthy of mention is the w^ild-cat, or 

 Canada lynx. He is a cowardly, skulking, destructive brute; his 

 principal food is the Arctic hare, or * Canadian rabbit. ' He has a 

 strong liking for sheep and lambs, does not disdain poultry, and 

 is quite capable of killing a fawn or a cariboo calf, provided the dam 

 is not too near. 



I do not wish the readers of this paper to imagine for one 

 minute that we have too much game in Nova Scotia, or that the 

 visitor to this Province can count on a moose head as a certainty. 

 The shooting of deer and cariboo is prohibited at present, and I 

 hope it will be for many years to come. With only one moose 

 allowed to one man, dogging extinct, snaring on the decrease, fire- 

 wards appointed and paid to prevent forest fires, and many hundred 

 sportsmen banded together in the People's Game Society, as well 

 as in the Provincial Game Society, the outlook for the increase of 

 big game is an encouraging one. 



