CONSERVATION OF GAME BIRDS. 553 



migration routes of wild-fowl and shore birds taken place in 

 recent times. Nevertheless, during the winter and in the 

 season of migration, birds in moving from day to day often 

 change their daily "fly lines," sometimes making wide detours 

 and avoiding places over which they formerly flew, or forsaking 

 old feeding grounds for new ones. These movements, which 

 in many cases seem inexplicable, rarely take the birds to such 

 a distance froni their regular migration route that they cannot 

 readily recognize the familiar landmarks or shores. A de- 

 flection from their usual course of from ten to twenty miles 

 either way, caused by the wind, will not take them out of 

 sight of the familiar landmarks by which they travel. ^ 



The Destruction of the Eggs of Wild-fowl for Commercial 



Purposes. 



A most "grotesquely fantastic explanation" of the decrease 

 of wild-fowl was published years ago by the press of the 

 country, and fathered by a society entitled the National 

 Game, Fish and Bird Protective Association. A tale was 

 told of enormous destruction of wild-fowl eggs in the north- 

 west for commercial purposes. It was stated that millions, 

 shiploads and trainloads of eggs were gathered in Alaska for 

 shipment to points in the east, where they were manufactured 

 into albumen cake. 



This fantastic tale, like Banquo's ghost, will not down, and 

 we now have one to match it in the east. The statement is 

 gravely made that schooner loads of Ducks' eggs have been 

 brought to T wharf in Boston from the coasts of Labrador and 

 the islands in the Arctic Sea, where the nests of Ducks and 

 Geese are rifled by thousands. These stories probably have 

 arisen because of the former commercial use of the eggs of 

 Murres and other sea birds. 



In 1895 the management of Forest and Stream of New 

 York undertook a thorough investigation of the first story, and 

 found it to be absolutely unfounded.^ Mr. James Henry 



1 Sea birds, which do not depend upon landmarks, but seem to be directed in storm or fog, as 

 well as in clear weather, by the power which guides the planets in their courses, are extreme excep- 

 tions to any rule of migration which may be laid down with regard to land birds. 



2 Grinnell, George Bird: American Duck Shooting, 1901, pp. 576-581. 



