Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-01-04
WANTS CRANES DIFFERENTIATED.
Says They Are killing Off Fish Very
Rnn

Says They Are killing Off Fish Very
Rapidly.
Three years ago this past summer Joe
Paris, John Chapman and another gem
tleman whose name | have forgotten,
were on the Hard Scrabble point ia
Upper Lake Minnetonka, says Il writer
III the Western Field and Stream. A
large blue heron flew over within gun
shot, and one of the party fired at him,
breaking his wing. He fell in the water
near the point, and they went out i'll
their boat and picked him up. On near
ing him, the bird commenced those pc
culiar undulating motions which his
tribe always practice when they desire
TO throw overheard some ballast. and
the first installment that came out of his
mouth was a pickerel, alive, and which
swan slowly off toward the point. The
bird was then Knocked on the head and
taken ashore. Approaching the shore,
they saw the pickerel still swimming
blindly along, slowly, and he was picked
UP also, ard measured 1919 inches III
length. For curiosity the bird was
opened and found to contain one bull
head, weight about a pound, evidently
but recently swallowed; another bull
head little smaller, and somewhat de-
composed; an ordinary sized sunfsh and
three small fish too badly decomposed
for Identification positively, but thought
TO be perch. This little incident prompts
me to ask, why is the protection of her
ons, usually called cranes about the
lake, and the black coots or cormorants,
continued? The amount of young fish
annually destroyed by these birds is sim
ply beyond computation. AS near as [
can learn, some years ago from some
peculiar notions of romantic sentiment,
one of the islands i'll the upper lake,
called Crane island, was taken under
Atan ,,.45r e
a law passed prohibiting the shoot
ing or killing in any manner
whatsoever of the aforesaid birds.
Furthermore, numerous signs were
placed upon the island. warn
ing people not to disturb the birds
or their nests in any way. For some
reason or other, Crane island has been
considered one of the sights of Lake
Minnetonka and the birds have held I'M
disputed possession for many years and
in my humble opinion have ruined one
of the prettiest islands in the lake. The
deposit of guano is so thick as to make a
trip across the island very nasty one,
to say the least. Many of the trees
have been killed and what is the good of
all this? The birds are neither sweet
singers nor brilliantly plumaged. Their
discordant gatherings are very unpleas-
ant to listen to, and they certainly work
great harm in the numerous fish which
they annually destroy. l say destroy adj
visedly, because the cormorant is much
like the blue fish in this respect He
dashes into a school Of fish, and cuts them
In two with his sharp scissors-like bill,
not pretending to eat one out of ten that
he destroys. Many of the old residents
around the upper lake, who have the in
terests of the lake and it's fish at heart.
have noticed the habits of these birds,
and will agree with me that it would be
very wise thing and long step taken
toward the protection of the Minnetonka
fish to have the law which protects these
birds repealed, and allow the hunters to
kill them and drive them off. [ presume
my radical and extreme ideas on this sub
ject will bring on my head a storm of
protests, and | am willing to hear all the
good things that can be said of these two
birds. / admit that [ can think of moth
ing good to be said for them, but they
may have their good points, like q singed
cat. Another thing; the heron eats an
enormous number of frogs, and to those
of us who have gone out for a few days
fishing and been unable to get any frogs
for bait, when there would have been
thousands had it not been for this army
of herons which continually patrol the
shores and pick up all those nice little
hand-painted ones which we so much
want to feed the bass TIL, this is not
pleasing.