28 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



izing prohibition or by withdrawing the nesting places into public 

 reserves or sanctuaries, was brought into active prominence in 

 the winter of 1913-14 by an official order condemning to destruction 

 the Cormorant colony on the Perce rock because of its alleged sin 

 in devouring the fry of the salmon. This allegation of offense 

 was based upon assumption — the act has never yet been proved 

 and indeed recent examination of these very Perce cormorants by 

 Mr Taverner has, he tells me, disproved the accusation in all the 

 birds (some thirty) which have come under his dissecting knife. 



That the writer interested himself in the first efforts made to 

 claim the innocence of this grievous allegation against birds whom 

 nature made to live on fish, is less to the point than the fact that 

 after having urged the arguments for protection as best he could 

 in quarters of influence, he responded to an invitation from the 

 Commission of Conservation of the Dominion of Canada to pre- 

 sent a plea for the protection of these notable spots, and the address 

 given on that occasion follows : 



Protection of the sea fowl of the Gulf of St Lawrence 



.The matter before our minds at this time is so wholly grounded 

 in sentiment that it may seem of diminutive importance in the face 

 of an overwhelming human issue. Whatever may be the turmoil 

 abroad in the world, it can not change the fact that the attitude of 

 government toward the protection of, its natural resources is an 

 index of its best attainment. This is all the more true of an 

 assumption which presents no possibilities of a commercial or ma- 

 terial benefit. We recognize the fundamental proposition that the 

 government which does not early see the importance of restraint 

 from overindulgence in the bounties of nature and its seemingly 

 inexhaustible possibility of wealth, is negligent and even suicidal. 

 Time teaches the necessity of such restraint with the visible, and 

 practical economy soon develops the imperative demand for un- 

 covering the invisible, resources of the earth. The impetus to 

 make a country yield its full flower and fruit in every direction 

 with which nature has endowed it, has been productive of the finest 

 scientific efforts which civilization has wrought out. 



Now, however, is a different proposition: to save to the world 

 certain species and groups of waterfowl, now traveling the rapid 

 road to extinction. If they are not saved, who can say the world 

 is poorer in a material or commercial sense? If they are saved, 

 protected and allowed to propagate and keep possession of their 

 ancient domain, who can say that the world is in any wise materially 

 the richer ? The birds that frequent the remarkable breeding places 

 in the Gulf of St Lawrence — the venerable Bird rock, the most 

 ancient monument of Canadian history, the cHffs of Bonaventure 

 island and the dramatic Perce rock — are no special profit to 



