^°k,s^^] Corrcsfovdcuce. 211 



of environment, as (liey at present exist, are against such abnormal 

 development. If, during the past, no such recognizable pale race has 

 been produced by the conditions as claimed and presented, what ground 

 or promise is there of 7101V establishing such a race amidst a shooting 

 club, a life saving station, and fishermen who have numbers of cats to 

 hold in check the vermin. These \'ermin are the direct result of those 

 reintroduced on the island by Mr. Miller and associates several years ago. 



I fail to appreciate and dissent from the statement near the foot of 

 page 77 that, " by helping to offer direct historical pi-oof of the rapidity 

 at which modification may progress imder natural conditions the Terns 

 would be fulfilling a more important end than in gladdening the e^e of 

 the visitor to Muskeget, and the heart of the reader of Mr. Mackay's 

 progress report." These beautiful birds are fulfilling at the present time 

 a much more important end than the one suggested, by delighting the 

 ej'e of every lover of bird life to whom the privilege of enjoying their 

 companionship is given. Refining in their infiuences, what higher or 

 better end can they serve ? 



George II. Mackay. 



Boston, Jiinttary 17, 1898. 



The Short-eared Owls of Muskeget Island. 



Editors of 'The Auk': — 



Dear Sirs: — I quite agree with Mr. Miller {cf. Auk, XV, No. i, Janu- 

 ary, 1898, pp. 75-77) that the killing of the family of Muskeget Owls in 

 1896, merely because they were preying on the Terns, was ill-judged. If 

 Muskeget were my private property I should encourage and protect the 

 Owls, and they would be made welcome to as many Terns as they chose 

 to eat, for I should feel confident that howevei- fast they might increase 

 the Terns would outstrip them in the race. As Mr. Miller says, bird pro- 

 tection should not be made one sided for if it be so it is certain to lose 

 not only its scientific but much of its aesthetic value, as well as some- 

 thing, even, of its practical usefulness. Bird protectors, whether thev be 

 sportsmen or pure bird lovers, Avould do well to study more closely the 

 balance of nature, for it concerns the success of their enterprises far 

 more closely than they seem to realize. Even the naturalists do not as 

 yet fully understand the complex workings and delicate adjustments of a 

 system which, Avhen not interfered with by man, seems invariably to 

 result in the production and maintenance of the richest possible fauna, 

 of which the predatory and non-predatory forms increase together to the 

 full limits of the capacity for food and shelter which the country fiu^- 

 nishes. No one who has ever visited a primitive region, well timbered, 

 well watered and not too cold, can deny the truth of this, but it is cer- 

 tainly' difficult to understand or explain how Hawks, Owls, Herons, 



