Bird Protection in Canada 



BY 



W. E. Saundbrs, 

 Of the Mcllwraith Ornithological Club, London, Ont. 



MR. CHAIRMAN, ladies and gentlemen: Birds, in common with 

 all wild life, are reproducing annually in excessive numbers 

 and the amount of that excess is governed by the amount of destruc- 

 tion that takes place in the individual species under consideration. As 

 a general rule it may be stated that the total annual death-rate corre- 

 sponds almost exactly with the annual rate of increase. When it is 

 considered that the annual rate of increase in common birds, such as 

 the robin, is perhaps two, three, or even five hundred per cent, it 

 follows that the annual death-rate is the same. Were it not so, an 

 enormous increase in the number of these species would take place 

 until eventually they would themselves check their increase by their 

 very abundance. This destruction takes place in very many ways. 

 The birds migrate, covering thousands of miles, exposing themselves 

 to very great dangers, often fatal. The conditions which perhaps we 

 ought to consider this afternoon are the other fatal conditions to the 

 birds, exclusive of migration, because with migration the Commission 

 of Conservation has and can have very little to do, most of the migra- 

 tion taking place out of the territory under its purview. 



.Esthetic While we have in the past given very great considera- 



ofBird*"*^* tion and thought to the economic side of bird protection. 

 Protection yet the aesthetic side is equally worthy, perhaps even 



more worthy, of consideration than the economic side. A compara- 

 tively small proportion of the population is interested personally in 

 birds from the economic side, while there is a large and rapidly 

 increasing number of the residents of Canada and of the civilized 

 world who are taking great interest in the study of bird life, and this 

 study is of very great benefit to the individual as well as to the nation 

 at large. It has a refining influence upon the student and yields an 

 amount of enjoyment which I hesitate to estimate, because it is such a 

 personal matter with me. To one who has made a life-long study of 

 birds, it is a very pleasant thing to go into the country and meet at 



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