Supplement to Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador: Supplement to an Address Presented by Lt.-Colonel William Wood, F.R.S.C. Before the Second Annual Meeting of the Commission of Conservation in January, 1911 — John Shaqi
Supplement to Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador: Supplement to an Address Presented by Lt.-Colonel William Wood, F.R.S.C. Before the Second Annual Meeting of the Commission of Conservation in January, 1911Wood, William
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Supplement to Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador: Supplement to an Address Presented by Lt.-Colonel William Wood, F.R.S.C. Before the Second Annual Meeting of the Commission of Conservation in January, 1911
I believe the light-keeper is supposed to be a conservator
of the birds and to prevent such uncontrolled destruction;
but what can he do, a man who is practically exiled from the
rest of his race for the entire year, frozen in for six
months of the year? He is naturally so overjoyed at the
sight of a fellow creature from the big world outside as to
indulge him, whatever his collecting proclivities may be.
The eggs that are taken by the occasional sailor seem to me
to cut no figure at all in the actual diminution of the bird
life there. That is a slender thing compared with the
destruction caused by the bird students. It is a severe
indictment of the ornithologist that such statements as the
foregoing happen to be true.
Almost as remarkable for its number of waterfowl of the same
species is the roost on the east cliffs of Bonaventure
island. These have fortunately been rendered by Nature, thus
far, inaccessible and the bird men have not yet found a way
of getting among them. Yet, even so, there is constantly a
great deal of reckless shooting at the birds simply for the
sake of "stirring them up." This place is not protected by
law, I believe, as a special reservation, but that might
easily be brought about if the matter were placed in the
hands of some responsible citizen residing on that island.
There is a happy situation in connection with the great
Perce rock at Perce, on the top of which the gulls and
cormorants have kept house for untold generations. These
birds are a constant temptation to the men with a gun, but
the Perce people are so attached to the birds that no one
would ever think of killing one, except the occasional
French fisherman who will eat a young gull when hard
pressed. Any attempt made by outsiders to use the birds as
targets is resented so strongly that even the cormorants are
let live.
Your address seems to me timely and extremely pertinent. I
hope your proposition may receive more than passing
attention and the suggestions therein be made effective, for
they certainly aim to maintain the natural attractions and
the natural resources of the country.
Mr. Napoleon A. Comeau, author of _Life and Sport on the North Shore_,
and one who has had fifty years' practical experience within the
Labrador area, writes from Godbout River, Que.:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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