156 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



p ,. Then we come to the matter of bird sanctuaries. Some 



Resent birds do not like people to make a fuss about them and 



Interference ^hat refers particularly to large wild birds on whom 

 human friendship is suddenly thrust. I had a remarkable experience 

 along that line in Alberta. On a small island in Miquelon lake, twelve 

 miles north of Camrose, there were two hundred breeding pairs of 

 white pelicans. The pelican, a bird about the size of an eagle, is not 

 accustomed to human interference. I visited the island with a friend 

 and saw these two hundred nests but the birds left the island before we 

 landed and did not return for about an hour or two after we left. My 

 companion was an enthusiastic ornithologist and bird protectionist and 

 his next door neighbour was the local M.L.A. Through his influence 

 that island was declared a bird reserve and the nearest farmer a game 

 warden, his duty being to see that the birds were not molested. He 

 visited the island practically every day and the birds resented it so 

 much that, since that year, there has not been a pelican on the island. 

 That shows that we must be careful in our attitude towards some of 

 the wild birds. 



p, . ^ In North America it has been the habit to await prac- 



Imminentin tical extermination before anything is done for the 

 some Cases ^jj^ things, either animals or birds, with the excep- 



tion of the game which is so highly thought of by the hunter. Ih 

 fact there has been so little done for birds that, in the United States, 

 practical extermination has actually taken place in the case of some 

 birds. There are some birds that really require immediate assistance 

 and, if one ventures to make a prophecy, it must not be considered as 

 exact in terms of years. We can never tell when the last of a species 

 is with us and, though a species that seems to be in danger of extinction 

 may remain in fair numbers for years without apparent diminution, it 

 may then come to a time when it practically drops out of existence all 

 at once, as did the Labrador ducks, which became extinct about 1865 

 from no known cause. It is surmised by ornithologists that they were 

 few in numbers, that they had a restricted summer habitat and that in 

 the fatal year a tribe of Indians visited this summer home and killed, 

 as they always do, everything they could — in fact as they need to do, 

 because in that northern country they must subsist on the wild things 

 — and thus the last of the Labrador ducks were destroyed. 



Now we have a bird in Ontario which is just about in 

 the Caspian that condition, namely, the Caspian tern. It is the 



Tern largest of the terns. These terns are large birds with 



sharp-pointed wings, and closely related to the gulls. They dart down 



