The Dolores star., 1924-02-29

So there's the whole proposition in "A nutshell,
according to the anti-bounty people. Alaska hav-
ing started the business Of raising foxes for furs,
the American eagle has got to get out because he
woull be likely to carry Off fox pup If he got
chance.
The other counts in the Indictment plain
bunk, according Old Baldys friends. Alaska
little for the conservation of its deer.
mountain sheep and goats that poachers and
market hunters kill them in season and out and
sell them for meat. And to the salmon-why,
it is common talk that the ishpackers in their
greed and disregard for the law have brought the
salmon packing to the verge of ruin. The recent
visit of the late President Harding and Secretary
Hoover resulted in the taking of steps to check
the greed of the commercial fishermen of Alaska.
For years these fishermen have been killing
spawning salmon that were needed for brood
stock. No wonder they want to shift the blame
to the American eagle.
$50 far I have been able to ascertain writes
a citizen of Juneau to T. Gilbert Pearson, presi-
dent of the National Association of Audubon So
cietles. no information statistics pre-
sented to the legislature basis for the pas
of the BILL the basis for Its enactment being
upon statements by observers that in their belief
the depredations of the bird seriously
Ing the salmon supply by destroying the fish while
engaged in spawning in the small streams, that
they also killed great many fawns of deer, and
young forest and shore birds, well ducks,
geese and other birds"
Inc leslsidluTe tilht paSSeu tllS law, says
Pearson. is not controlled by Wild Indians and
ignorant Eskimos, but by who should know
better than to condemn any form of wild life
merely on rumors and loose statements Of preju-
diced observers and without some scientific lnves-
tigaton."
The biological survey of the Department Of Az
ricuture after careful study of the economic
relation of the American, bald, eagle. In Bulletin
No. q. sums up the matter as follows:
Maid tha bald
beneficial than otherwise. since much of its
food is OF little or no direct economic value wte
the good 1t does more than compensates for It's
noxious deeds.
In Alaska where fish abundant at certain
seasons Of the year, the bald eagle undoubtedly
lives largely salmon, but 1t Is wellknown fact
in the life history of the salmon that it dies after
spawning The banks of streams are at times
lined with the bodies of spawned-out fish which
carried away and eaten by these big birds
Of prey.
The fact is-and any naturalist will bear wit
ness to it-that the American eagle, while fond
of fish, Is himself most awkward fisherman TO
catch fish he wades into the shallow water of
stream and strikes with his talOns at the fish as
they go by His usual way of catching fish is TO
let the osprey catch the fish and then rob the
osprey. In fact Benjamin Franklin who was n
good deal of naturalist objected to the selection
of the American eagle the national emblem of
the American people on the ground that the bird
of Freedom" did not "get his living honestly"
Alexander Wilson G766-1813) the famous au-
thor of american Ornithology" (1SOS-13) in nine
Volumes drew this pen-picture of the American
eagle engaged in his favorite sport of robbing
the osprey:
Elevated on the high dead limb of some gIgan-
tic tree that commands wide view Of the neigh
boring shore and ocean, he seems calmly to con-
template the motions of the various featbered
tribes that pursue their avocations below High
over all these hovers one whose action Instantly
arrests his whole attention. BY his wide curva-
ture of wing and sudden suspension In air he
knows him to be the Fish Hawk settling over some
devoted victim Of the deep His eye kindles at the
sight, and balancing himself with half-opened