tHE OOLOGISf 



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in my opinion should never be used, 

 and seldom is by Indians or Half- 

 breeds. The white man is the offend- 

 er. If a' hunter has not sufficient skill 

 to catch the wily fox, coyote and tim- 

 ber wolf in traps he should quit the 

 game and leave it to those who can. 

 Many meat eating birds fall victims to 

 the steel traps, chiefly Canada Jays 

 and Ravens, Goshawks, Horned Owls, 

 Eagles and Hawk Owls to a lesser ex- 

 tent. In fact the Canada Jays and the 

 Flying and Red Squirrels are a pest 

 to the trapper and it is no uncommon 

 thing to have a Canada Jay and a 

 young weasel, mink, otter, Martin trap 

 before you have walked out of sight, 

 after making the set. Meat eating 

 birds would naturally have a better 

 chance to exist in the Southern plains 

 country which would not be so closely 

 trapped as the northern wooded coun- 

 try where almost every settler family 

 has a weasel trap out. 



Another bird which I have only 

 seen one specimen on the Pembina is 

 the Turkey Buzzard. On May 31st, 

 1914, I saw one flying low over the 

 river. I recognized it at once, having 

 seen many in California when I was 

 a boy. My companion, also an Ameri- 

 can, also recognized it. 



The Mourning Dove is a rare sum- 

 mer resident in the country north of 

 Edmonton and I have seen perhaps a 

 dozen specimens. The last one I saw 

 was on October 4th, '15 near Paddle 

 River. In the spring of 1918 I also 

 saw a Mourning Dove on Battle 

 Prairie about ninety miles north of 

 Peace River crossing, feeding on the 

 prairie. This is probably the furthest 

 north record for the Mourning Dove. 



Several years ago while conducting 

 a trading post at Pembina crossing 

 the Indian at Shoal Lake about twenty 

 five miles north sent down a bird for 

 me to identify as they had never seen 



one like it before. It proved to be a 

 specimen of Clark's Crow which had 

 strayed from its mountain home two 

 hundred or more miles distant. I 

 have never seen one since. I also 

 have heard that they have been shot 

 at Shoal Lake and in the winter of 

 1913 my partner saw a flock at Moose 

 Lake, a few miles north of Muror 

 Landing, but as he did not bring me a 

 specimen I did not know to which 

 species they belonged. 



Another bird which is not common 

 but is occasionally seen and heard is 

 the Blue Jay and the few individuals 

 with us appear to be resident and stay 

 pretty well in the heavy spruce woods. 

 They are heard more often than seen. 

 It might be worth while collecting a 

 few specimens for comparison with 

 the Eastern Blue Jay to see if they 

 differ in any ^espect. The Northern 

 Pileated Woodpecker was scarce in 

 '99, when I first came to the Pembina 

 River, but seem to be now on the in- 

 crease, frequenting the heavy timber 

 along the river. His handsome and 

 conspicuous appearance often brings 

 him to grief at the hands of the sports- 

 man out to kill "something," it does 

 not matter much what. It is intoler- 

 able that this class of destroyers who 

 kill and throw away should be im- 

 mune to all laws for bird protection 

 to almost impossibility of proof, 

 while the responsible collector who 

 kills only when necessary and pre- 

 serves his specimens with best of 

 care is allowed only a pair of birds 

 and one set of eggs per annum and is 

 forced to pay five dollars for the scant 

 privilege. Not that I would object to 

 paying five dollars or twenty-five dol- 

 lars under a liberal law, that would 

 allow of say half a dozen birds and 

 sets per annum of each species. 

 Species in danger of extermination 

 could be totally protected or only one 



