158 



THE OOLOGIST 



eagles as butchering grounds, each 

 one strewn with the remains of their 

 victims. In these places it seems that 

 the Pigeon Gullimot's feathers are 

 found most often. Fully half the birds 

 found are of this species. I can only 

 account for this by the fact that they 

 are rather slow about diving and also 

 that they seem to experience great 

 difficulty in rising from the water. It 

 would be quite easy for the white 

 headed marauder to swoop down upon 

 them when attempting the latter. 



From the above does it not seem 

 that in order to preserve our more val- 

 uable birds in Alaska the ranks of the 

 Bald Eagle should be thinned out? 

 Bird life would thrive much better 

 without it. But little can be said in 

 its favor. It has no economic value. 

 Why then, should it be allowed to 

 continue its depredations? In the 

 Aleutians its abundance is in all prob- 

 ability one of the reasons for the scar- 

 city of bird life there. Besides its 

 destruction of birds I have touched up- 

 on two other cases where its pres- 

 ense is undesirable. There are still 

 others. Throughout Alaska it rapaci- 

 ousness is notorious. It is to be re- 

 greted that so handsome and majestic 

 a bird causes so much havoc, but leav- 

 ing aside sentiment one cannot get 

 away from the fact that its presence 

 is deleterious to the natural resources 

 of the territory. 



I. J. Van Kammen. 



[The foregoing is certainly a splen- 

 did contribution to our readers. We 

 hope Mr. Van Kammen will "come 

 again" and often. — Editor.] 



Alarming Scarcity of Vultures. 



By E. F. Pope. 

 After an absence of three or four 

 years the writer returned to Texas in 

 1911, and at once noted a marked de- 

 crease in the numbers of both Cath- 

 artes aura and Cathartes uruba. Each 



h^ucceeding year the decrease in the 

 number of these birds has been steady 

 and more marked, until now, they are 

 actually scarce. Eight or nine years 

 ago it was no uncommon sight to see 

 more than 100 vultures (about equal- 

 ly divided as to species) gathered 

 around a single carcass, with the re- 

 sult that in a very short time nothing 

 hut closely picked bones were left 

 to bleach in the sun, instead of a slow- 

 ly decaying mass of flesh to menace 

 the health of those living in the vicin- 

 ity. Two weeks ago a neighbor's cow 

 mired in a small creek near our home 

 — too near for comfort, — became chill- 

 ed over night and died. Water rend- 

 ered cremation out of the question; 

 the expected freshet in the creek to 

 carry away the carcas never came, 

 therefore the only thing left was to 

 hire a bunch of negro laborers to bury 

 the remains, — an expensive and * * "^ 

 words fail us * * * proceeding. Dur- 

 ing the ten or twelve days which 

 elapsed between the death and burial 

 of this unfortunate bovine only three 

 vultures were observed at the carcass, 

 two aura and a single uruba. which of 

 course were entirely unequal to the 

 task before them, and either through 

 indifference which comes with satia 

 tion or from disappointment at the 

 failure of expected reinforcements, 

 after a few hours visit for three suc- 

 cessive days, the lonely trio took wing 

 and were seen no more. 



Vultures no doubt convey germs of 

 a deadly disease of cattle, for which 

 single fault our wise(?) Legislators 

 have legalized and encouraged their 

 destruction, with the result that na- 

 ture's chief scavangers, whose only 

 price for their inestimable service to 

 man is permission to breathe of the 

 air which their very existence helps to 

 keep from contamination, are now en- 

 tering upon the same trail which has 

 been traveled by the Great Auk, Pas- 



