BIRD PROTECTION IN CANADA 159 



ience. The result was full of disappointment and defeat, but not 

 discouragement, and I still hope that, before it is too late, some of the 

 larger birds, such as the fish hawk, will be protected. These birds 

 formerly nested along lake Erie and probably on lake Huron. They 

 still nest in Algonquin park and probably in Muskoka but the shores 

 of lakes Erie, Ontario and Huron are destitute of them. My brother 

 informs me that they are common also along the Columbia river, be- 

 tween its source and Golden. Are we going to sit by and witness their 

 extermination in that district? 



The bald eagle formerly nested along every large lake 



Diminution ^^^ ^jgg probably beside every medium-sized lake a 



among Eagles ^ ., ^. ■' ^ , ,. ^ 



few miles m extent. In the district with which 1 am 



personally familiar, lake Erie south of London, there was a nest 



about every five miles. Now there is a nest about every thirty 



miles. About five-sixths of the eagles have been killed off. The 



eagle is not an injurious bird and, during the summer holidays, 



every person enjoys the sight of- one of these large birds soaring above. 



In August, going from Ottawa to Kingston on the Rideau river I saw 



one fish hawk, but not an eagle, yet it was formerly a common resident 



along all lakes the size of Rideau lakes. Some years ago I questioned 



an Essex County farmer regarding an eagle's nest across the road 



from his place and asked what his experience had been with these 



birds. He said his neighbour thought he ought to have them killed 



off, because they were so hard on chickens, but he said : " They never 



touch any of mine and I am the nearest." Other people have had the 



same experience. The eagles pick up dead fish, etc. They are really 



scavengers and, if they have any economic value, it is as scavengers. 



But the aesthetic value of the eagle is considerable. Everyone likes to 



see them and, when a man with a gun kills one, he takes away from 



the country, from you and from me, our rights in that bird, and almost 



invariably he throws it on the waste heap. 



The great blue heron is another species in the same 

 Danger to the category. It used to nest in communities and, while 



it does yet to a certain extent, the communities are 

 very small. There is one heronry near London with about twenty odd 

 nests. How it has escaped so long I do not know, because we have so 

 many irresponsible people who do not think, whose impulse is to 

 slaughter and who go out with -22 rifles into a heronry just to see how 

 many herons they can kill. Then, of course, the eggs rot or the young 

 starve to death. It is the privilege of the members of this Committee 

 to inaugurate a system that will prevent that sort of thing occurring in 



