Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1920-04-05 | Page 4 | American Eagle near Extinction

!lCSI EAGLE BE)(TIICI!OI New Vorlt, April u. A warning against the threatened cNtlnciiua or the bald or American "eagle, tho national na-tional bird of tho United States, wa issued here today by tho American Museum of Natural IlitUory. allien stated that reports indicated tnat "more than one-half, and, perhaps,'1 three-quarters of the" entire si)eci-c" already have been destroyed. Destruction of the birds is attributed attrib-uted to hunlers in Alaska, who are, killing them for the bounty paid by the territorial government. Never numerous, the museum authorities cay, more than 5, COO eagles were sUi.ij in a few months in their fa.'oritc breeding ground, the Alaskan peninsula. penin-sula. Hunters have extended ihc'r operations Into the British provinces adjoining Alaska, it is said, to swell their gains. After declaring that the American eagle preys chiefly on large rodei.us harmful to farm' crops, for the control con-trol of which thc-jkovciirinxantanjuiiil-ly expends large sums, the museuln declares that 'tales of the American eagle's destrtictlvencss to game or domestic do-mestic animals are .for tho gieaasr part pure fiction." The bird, it saya, Is migratory, and therefore no state or territory can claim the right to destroy de-stroy it, tha.t right being vested hi tno federal government Recalling the fact that the wild pigeon, formerly found In incredlbio numbers in certain parts of tho L lilted lil-ted States, had been "utterly wiped out by unrestricted shooting and ehe destruction of Its nests," the museum Kays that only the prompt passage oi a federal law will save the American easle from the same fate. .