COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 7 
people who live along the coast and the fishermen who come from a 
distance have always been in the habit of taking eggs and killing the 
birds for food. They regard it as their right, and although some of 
them will admit that the wasteful methods used are fast destroying 
the birds, they are not willing to refrain from these methods. They 
say with reason that if they do not take these eggs or young gulls, 
or shoot these setting ducks, someone else will. It is each man for 
himself and the devil take the hindermost. Annihilation is the fate 
of the birds; the eider and the murre will go the way of the Labrador 
duck and the great auk. Birds that nest in crevices in the rocks, 
like black guillemots and razor-billed auks, will last longer, but the 
end is in sight for all. 
It is a truism that laws out of sympathy with the feeling of the 
people will not be kept. Laws against egging or shooting out of 
season can not be enforced on the long and intricate coast of Labra¬ 
dor. Wardens who intend to do their duty and arrest and prosecute 
offenders will be looked upon as enemies to be avoided and cheated, 
and this by an otherwise law-abiding people. 
There is one very simple means which would help in enforcing 
the present laws in Canadian Labrador. Newfoundland fishermen, 
who are the most reckless offenders, are obliged to obtain licenses 
to fish in Canadian waters. The law requires that they not only 
obey the game laws, but that they also take out at some expense 
licenses to carry guns and shoot. If the presence of an unlicensed 
gun on a fishing schooner or the detection in egging be made a suf¬ 
ficient reason for cancelling the fishing license, one of the great sources 
of bird destruction will be diminished but not by any means stopped. 
It is easy to conceal guns and elude wardens on this long and intricate 
coast. 
The open season for shooting should be intelligently planned for 
different parts of the coast, and should be strictly limited to the 
periods when the birds are migrating. It is of course illogical to 
have the same open season at Blanc Sablon as at Nain, where the 
birds nest several weeks later. 
These suggestions, if adopted, may be of some value, and may 
delay for a little the rapid progress towards annihilation of water- 
bird life in Labrador. That these or any similar measures will pre¬ 
vent this dreaded consummation I do not believe. 
What then is to be done? Is there no hope for the birds and for 
the people to whom the birds are such a valuable asset? I think 
there is. I believe that the whole problem can be solved most ration¬ 
ally and satisfactorily for all concerned by the immediate establish¬ 
ment of bird reservations. These should be islands or groups of islands 
or suitable portions of the main coast that can be watched by guard¬ 
ians. Here the birds should be undistrubed and allowed to rest, feed 
and breed in peace. The people should be made to understand that 
these reservations are not established to cut down their hunting, and 
thereby invite poaching and violation of the laws, but for the pur¬ 
pose of preserving and increasing the birds so that there shall be 
better shooting for everybody on the coast. 
