114 ox THE SEA-nntDS prrsehvation act, 



grant to some boats license to land, the licensed boat-owners to 

 be answerable for the conduct of the parties they take ; and for 

 a rule to be made that no guns were to be fired within a pre- 

 scribed distance of the Islands during the time the breeding birds 

 are there without special permission ? 



Since the foregoing remarks were written the Act commencing 

 close time from February 15th has come into operation, and at 

 the risk of appearing presumptuous and wearisome I offer some 

 farther remarks on the apparently confused legislation respecting 

 the protection of sea and other birds which seems to me to be 

 entirely in the wrong direction. 



The various species of birds, except the few wingless spe- 

 cies, whose distribution appears always to liave been extremely 

 limited, and many of which have become, and others appear to be 

 becoming, extinct, are nearly all more or less migratory, either 

 from one part of the world to another, or merely from one dis- 

 trict to another, and often these migratory flights are to a great 

 distance and very extensive. ^N^ature seems to have guarded 

 against the possibility of these species becoming extinct by the 

 great extent of country over wliich they are distributed. Most 

 persons seem to suppose that the comparatively few individuals 

 of each species which visit us represent the whole of the species, 

 instead of their being only a very insignificant portion of it. 



As stated above, I have almost come to the conclusion that, 

 with few exceptions, it would be immaterial, so far as the exis- 

 tence of the species is concerned, if all of those which come to 

 us in one year were destroyed. I believe in a remarkably short 

 time we should be as well supplied as before witli such species 

 as are suitable to the face of tlie country under any altered con- 

 ditions. 



It would seem, if we look at the north polar region of a globe, 

 that there is a portion of the world extending probably four hun- 

 dred miles about the pole uninhabited by birds. Then comes a 

 belt of many hundred miles, partly of land, over a veiy great 

 portion of which no civilized man has yet traversed. This is the 

 tract of country which produces the hosts of migratory wild fowl 

 which spread thonmclves ovrr ihr globe southward in winter to 



