122 



THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



one time, were common in our immediate 

 forests. The Moose and Virginia Deer will 

 not remain long in proximity to civilization, 

 and it is a fact that these species each success- 

 ive season move towards higher latitudes. It 

 is therefore probable that ere many years pass 

 away, the hunter, in order to obtain venison, 

 will have to travel to the extreme northern 

 edge of the Canadian forests to find his game. 

 There is an American cry at present against a 

 few English gentlemen, who occasionally visit 

 the Western regions of the United States in 

 search of large game. They are accused of 

 wantonly destroying Rocky Mountain Elk (?) 

 Shooting the animals down for the mere 

 pleasure ot afterwards boasting of the circum- 

 stances. Now, we cannot comprehend the 

 reason why an old sporting paper like Forest 

 and Stream, should mislead its readers by 

 stating that Englishmen journey so far for the 

 sport of shooting Elk, when they can procure 

 them in some places in Canada or Maine. An 

 editorial in the same paper says that Moose 

 are not abundant in the Rocky Mountains or 

 valleys adjacent thereto. There is something 

 wrong here, and the zoological writer in Forest 

 and Stream would do well hereafter to adhere 

 more closely to the nomenclature of the 

 Michigan Sportsmens' Association. No true 

 sportsman, especially an English one of means, 

 will remain silent without demurring against 

 a false charge of this nature, and it is evident 

 that the object of making it, is to further the 

 interests of Western skin hunters, who are 

 jealous of the visits of good marksmen, who 

 go there, not for mercenary purposes, but for 

 pure sport. The people inhabiting the West- 

 ern portions of the United States, where large 

 game occur, should certainly make stringent 

 laws to protect the animals, going so far as to 

 compel every man to procure a license to hunt 

 in the regions of the Rocky Mountains. If 

 this is not done, the Wapiti (C. Canadensis,) 

 the Elk of Forest ay,d Stream, will ultimately 

 be exterminated, and the Buffalo (although 

 not considered game) ere many years pass 



away, will also be classed among extinct 

 quadrupeds of this continent. In our own 

 Great North-west Territories, at present, the 

 richest sporting grounds in America, the 

 advance of the white man will eventually pro- 

 duce the same changes in the fauna of that 

 region which have been alluded to above. 

 The lakes and ponds of the vast prairie lands for 

 centuries past and the breeding-places of many 

 species of wild water fowl, will, as man sur- 

 rounds them with his habitations, be thoroughly 

 deserted, and the birds, like the poor Indians, 

 must find more retired places to produce their 

 species. Such then is the Natural History 

 view to be taken of the advance of civilization 

 westward. Every animal of a wild nature 

 will have to retire before it. That there is 

 plenty of space for their removal, there is no 

 doubt, but there is a limit to the northward 

 progress of some quadrupeds and birds, many 

 species of which cannot subsist in high lati- 

 tudes. Then, anticipating a large annual 

 increase to the present rural population in the 

 North-western portions of Canada, the results 

 which are now spoken of regarding a change 

 in t\\efawia of that region, will certainly take 

 place. Where will they go to be undisturbed 

 as they were before the recent encroachment of 

 man on their domain ? This is a question ot 

 interest to the sportsman and naturalist. Any 

 person reading Audubon's visit to Labrador, 

 and who will take the trouble to follow his 

 footsteps on the latter coast, as the writer has 

 done, may see the changes which have taken 

 place there. In fact, one reading his descrip- 

 tion on the spot where he found a species of 

 bird breeding on that rocky shore, would 

 pronounce the statements fictitious, as no nests 

 of the kind are found there at this day. Man 

 appeared and settled in the neighbourhood, 

 and the birds have removed for safety to more 

 secluded places. — C. 



THE NIDIFTCATION OF NUTHATCHES. 



Eminent Ornithologists have described the 

 nesting habits of these birds as similar to 

 Woodpeckers, the nest being formed by 



