File:The conservation of the wild life of Canada (1921) (14751032365).jpg

Identifier: conservationofwi00hewi (find matches)
Title: The conservation of the wild life of Canada
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Hewitt, Charles Gordon, 1885-1920
Subjects: Game protection Birds Game and game-birds
Publisher: New York, C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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ated to the murres, was formerly abundant on the islandsand shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Easy of captureand about the size of a goose, it was killed in thousands bythe crews of vessels engaged in its destruction for the sakeof the oil it contained. To-day it is extinct. Few skinsremain in our museums and its eggs are so scarce that theyare worth about $1,200 each. Along our Atlantic coast the Eskimo curlew (Numeniusborealis Forst.) used to wing its way in countless myriadsduring its fall migration from the breeding-places in theBarren Grounds to South America. In the spring it trav-elled north again across the interior and swarmed over theprairies. They landed in enormous numbers on the Atlanticcoast, from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to New Eng-land. In Newfoundland their millions darkened the skyand the fishermen salted them down in barrels. Every yearthey were killed in thousands for the market; they sufferedby reason of their excessive abundance. At the close of the PLATE I
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CANADIAN BIRDS WHICH HAVE BEEN EXTERMINATED WITHINRECENT YEARS AND ARE NOW EXTINCT 1. Passenger Pigeon 2. Great Auk 3. Labrador Duck Hi m THE EXTERMINATION OF WILD LIFE 21 last century ornithologists realized that this most useful andhighly esteemed of our American game birds was disappear-ing, until in 1908 Preble stated: It has become practicallyexterminated, although formerly enormously abundant andfairly common up to 1890. The market demand and thetastes of the epicures have sealed its fate. Its abundanceproved to be its destruction. As with the birds so with our mammals, and in later chap-ters the reduction of the buffalo and the antelope from mil-lions to a few thousands will be described. To-day thecaribou is undoubtedly in danger of a similar fate. And infact the same is true of any animal, be it bird or mammal:so long as mere numbers are regarded as a reason for exces-sive kilHng, just so surely will the extermination of an,nimal follow. It should also be pointed out that whe

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