Among the Guests Registered 161 



raising area of Canada. Few birds are seen on the eastern 

 seashore. Just what brought this gentle stranger to our marsh 

 is, of course, something I cannot answer. I would like to 

 know where it went from here and if ultimately it joined its 

 kind on the desert coast of South America. 



Another bird which visits the marsh infrequently brings 

 a feeling of regret along with the interest it arouses. I refer 

 to the large bird with whitish head and white underparts, the 

 osprey or fish hawk, once a regular resident, then a frequent 

 visitor, and later driven from the scene by advancing civiliza- 

 tion and the direct action of man. One of our early ornithol- 

 ogists told me the story of a pair of ospreys which formerly 

 nested on an island in Union Bay for at least twelve years. 

 There they raised their young and took the fish necessary for 

 their existence. The number of fishermen increased with the 

 rapid growth of the city and, as is always true in such situa- 

 tions, the waters no longer yielded in their former abundance. 

 My friend said that the failure of the trout supply was 

 ascribed to every cause except the logical ones— the great 

 increase in the number of fishermen and the practical lack of 

 control of the size of their take. Among the agents blamed 

 for the lack of supply were the ospreys, and this in spite of 

 the fact that there was only one pair in the vicinity. But an 

 osprey lives on fish and though trout, being a hard fish to 

 take, probably were only a small part of their diet, it was de- 

 cided that the birds should be eliminated. One day, some 

 public-minded citizen, probably quite sincere in his belief 

 that he was doing a service to humanity by denying this 

 one pair of birds their right to existence, "shot up the nest," 

 and destroyed the two birds. My old friend, the ornithologist, 

 who was also an expert fisherman, remarked that there was 

 no noticeable increase in the supply of fish: the only effect 

 of the shooting was that this splendid white-headed air 

 master, with its flashing light underparts, was never again 

 seen swooping down into its home on the island. 



