Fphniary, 1!)21.| 



The Canadian Fielo-Xaturalist. 



Island quote* from the decision of the 

 Supreme Court of the United States. 



Tlie decision is summed up with a state- 

 ment to the effect that the Migratory Birds 

 Convention Act is intra vires of the Dom- 

 inion Parliament under the general power 

 of the Federal Parliament to make laws for 

 the order and good government of Canada 

 as well as under its power to carry out 

 Treaty obligations by legislation and any 

 conflicting Pi-ovincial Legislation is abrog- 

 ated bv it. 



The magistrate's order for dismissal was 

 set aside and the appeal allowed with costs. 

 Under this decision Mr. Clark's gun was 

 forfeited, a fine of $10.00 imposed, and he 

 had to pay the court costs. 



It will be of interest to those concerned 

 in the protection of the birds of the Con- 

 tinent to learn from this decision that the 

 Federal Legislation for bird protection in 

 Canada is legally sound. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Axi.MAL Behavior as a Factor in the Formation of Bone Beds. 



The occurrence of fossil vertebrates 

 massed together in considerable numbers 

 in restricted areas is a familiar fact to ex- 

 perienced collectors. These aggregations 

 are usually spoken of as bone beds or quar- 

 ries by collectors of fossils. Various theo- 

 ries have been proposed to account for the 

 surprising abundance of vertebrate remains 

 in certain quarries and their absence or 

 scarcity outside these limited areas. Dif- 

 ferent kinds of bone beds* evidently re- 

 quire different explanations. 



In the case of l)one beds in which only 

 a single species or closely associated spe- 

 cies are present, the accumulation of the 

 remains of numerous individuals may be 

 explained by the peculiar behavior of some 

 animals of the present time on the approach 

 of death from starvation or freezing. Such 

 bone beds appear to be common in the 

 Cretaceous. Mr. C. M. Sternberg is ac- 

 quainted with "no less than 7 bone beds in 

 which only horned dinosaurs are repre- 

 sented. " ^ * 



Darwin has described the curious ins- 

 tinct of the guanaco of South America 

 which leads it to "have favorite spots for 

 lying down to die. On the banks of the 

 St. Cruz in certain circumscribed spaces 

 which were generally bushy and all near 

 the river the ground was actually white 

 with bones." - 



A western correspondent, Mr. K. A. 

 Brooks, has given me in a letter a descrip- 



1 E. M. Kindle, Inequalities of Sedimenta- 

 tion, ,Tour. of Geol.. Vol. 27, p. 3.59. 1919. 



- Chas. Darwin, The Voyag^e oT tlie Beagle, 

 p 172. 



tion of the behavior of cattle and buffalo 

 on the western plains under the stress of 

 cold, starvation and fright, which clearly 

 indicates how large masses of the bones of 

 the.se animals have been accumulated. Mr. 

 Brooks states that : "During the hard 

 winter of 1906-07 thou.sands of head of 

 cattle perished from starvation and cold. 

 I remember well how some of them died. 

 The first cow to die usually felt it com- 

 ing and left the bunch or herd and slow- 

 ly made its Avay to a lonely place, gen- 

 erally a clump of brusli or a coulee, and 

 lying down simply waited to die. The 

 next one feeling her time approaching 

 foUoAved in the tracks of the fir.st one, 

 and died close beside her and this was 

 kept up until there were no more, or re- 

 lief came. At the V Ranch in the Hands- 

 Ilills, central Alberta, tlie owner show- • 

 ed me a coulee where 450 head of his 

 cattle died. This pile of bones actually 

 made a dam across the ravine. Within 

 half a mile was another pile of l)ones. 

 all that was left of (i7.3 head. Everyone 

 acted the same way. The owners tolil 

 me that hardly half a dozen died sep- 

 arately and these were on tiieir way to 

 the dying place. 



"There is also another place on the 

 Beaver Dam river where countless buf- 

 falo died of thirst during a dry year. An 

 old Indian told me that long ago there 

 had been nearly three years of rain- 

 less seasons. All the rivers were dry as 

 well as most of the springs. But one 

 kept flowing very freely on the banks 

 of the Beaver Dam. AVhen a herd of 



