AMERICAN EAGLE PROTECTION HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Friday, January 31, 1930. The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. Gilbert M. Haugen (chairman) presiding. EXTENDING PROTECTION TO THE AMERICAN EAGLE Mr. ANDRESEN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, this is H. R. 7994, a bill extending protection to the American eagle. (The text of the bill reads as follows:) [H. R. 7994, Seventy-first Congress, second session] Extending protection to the American eagle Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be unlawful for any person to kill or capture any bald eagle (commonly known as the American eagle) within the continental United States, Alaska, Porto Rico, or Hawaii, or to disturb or destroy any nest, or egg or eggs, of such species of eagle found therein: Provided, however, That it shall not be unlawful to kill any such eagle or eagles within such area when in the act of destroying wild or tame lambs or fawns, or foxes on fox farms. SEC. 2. Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this act shall be subject to a fine of $100 or confinement in prison not to exceed sixty days, or both. SEC. 3. This act shall be known by the short title "Bald Eagle Protection Act." Mr. ANDRESEN. This bill was introduced by me at the request of interested parties in this country and I have received hundreds of letters and telegrams throughout the United States saying that the people of this country are vitally interested in protecting the American eagle. Doctor Pearson, President of the Audubon Societies, will be the first witness. STATEMENT OF DR. T. GILBERT PEARSON, PRESIDENT NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETIES Doctor PEARSON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, north of the Rio Grande, up to the Arctic pole, we have about 1,200 varieties of birds in North America, and perhaps the one whose name has been called more than any other since the white man has been in this country is the American eagle. Yet it is not appreciated, at the present time, that it is so nearly bordering on extinction in many places, that it is imperative that measures be adopted looking to its preservation. Though it has an enormous range, it is an extremely rare bird in most States. I refer to the bald eagle, usually known as the American eagle, and not the golden eagle. 1 Mr. ANDRESEN. Why the bald eagle? Doctor PEARSON. It is an emblem of our national independence. and is the original of the design on those coins that we all try to get a reasonable amount of in life. We protect our American flag and it seems to me logical that we might protect the emblem. I suspect there are gentlemen who are sitting around this table who have rarely, if ever, seen the American eagle. He is very rare to-day. It never was abundant except in a comparatively few areas. It has an expanse of wing of from 6 to 7 feet; the female is larger than the male, probably because she is so largely responsible for the care of the young. After the bird is hatched and has its first plumage, it is dull gray, and it is 3 years old before it gets its full plumage. In full plumage, its head and part of its neck is white, its tail is white, and the rest of the body is dark brown. There is a picture of the American eagle behind the chairman. Contrary to public conception, these birds are not birds of the mountains, they are birds of the low country; they are never found on the crags and in the uplands. The other eagle-the golden eagle-is the bird of the mountains. The bird that appears in literature, where there is some reference to its carrying off babies-which, of course, the eagle never does-the bird sometimes takes a lamb-that is the golden eagle. I remember seeing two golden eagles-and they generally travel in pairs-in McKinley National Park, on one occasion, flying around some sheep and on two occasions I saw these birds apparently swooping down toward a small lamb, but the ewe simply moved closer to the lamb, and the eagles soared off. Those were golden eagles and not the American eagle. I have a map here on which you can see only white and green. This [exhibiting] is supposed to be a map of North America and Mexico and shows the range of the bald eagle from Alaska, coming south through Canada, touching Alberta, then dropping down to Florida and running around about three-quarters of the way of Texas and then along the outer strip of California. That does not mean that this bird is individually distributed over the country in large numbers. It means that if you placed spots where the eagles ought to be found, the would all come in within these areas. Generally they ought to be found in the regions of swamps. In the course of field work in the last 35 years I have found their nests in many places. The eyrie of the eagle is well known around the country where it is located; everybody knows about it. It is an enormous thing, built almost exclusively-exclusively as far as I have observed in the topmost branches of trees. I have a friend who claims to have found one on a sharp crag in Alaska, but preferably we find eagles' nests in the South in pines. In the old days, before there was an Audubon Society, I found one in a slash pine, 130 feet from the ground to the first limb. I climbed up the tree that will indicate to you, gentlemen, that I could climb in those days--and there I found the nest over 6 feet thick from top to bottom and 3 or 4 feet across. Mr. ADKINS. Is that the nest you described in a pamphlet not long since with a certain interesting little story about it? Doctor PEARSON. There is a pamphlet that I wrote, but whether that is the one to which you refer I do not know. Mr. ADKINS. And later the limb of the tree on which the nest rested broke off, and the birds built another nest? Doctor PEARSON. In order to get to the eggs I, had to tear out a part of the nest in order to get my arm in. The nest was 6 feet wide. În tearing out the outside, I saw layer after layer of decayed pine needles and fish bones. The bald eagle ever so often adds a little to the nest until the eyrie becomes enormous, and it must weigh a ton. The birds use the same eyrie year after year, and it is presumed the eagle is very long-lived-possibly a hundred years-and in the event of the death of one of them there are accounts of the mate not mating again, but the accuracy of that we do not know. It is a big and wonderful bird, a bird that arouses a great deal of interest wherever it goes. I spoke of fish bones in this nest. Another nest 140 feet from the ground contained a grebe. I can not imagine an eagle catching it, but of course it may have done so. During my boyhood days in Florida, along the coast and the lakes, I frequently have seen eagles, but in recent years I have not seen any. In 1918, while acting for the Food Administrator, I studied the bird and food supply of the country, and I did not see one eagle until I reached Cape Sable, Fla. That is an instance which will demonstrate how rare these birds are becoming. In a great many States I doubt if there are as many as half a dozen American eagles left. It is not because of the damage they do that they are killed, but we frequently pick up a paper and read how Mr. John Brown, a respectable farmer, killed an eagle, and giving an account of the wing spread, etc. It seems to me this is an outstanding incident justifying national protection. The eagle lays two eggs and the young stay four or five months in the nest before they are able to fly. Let me now pass on to the legal aspect. The Audubon law, which our association actively pushed and secured the enactment of in many States in the Union, prohibits the killing of all birds, except game birds and certain species injurious to man. In those States the bald eagle is protected by that blanket provision. There are a few States that protect it specifically by name in their statutes. There are also a few States that name it as a nuisance. That is its local status from a State point of view. Now, the story has gone out without any great effort to stir up national interest, as some of us tried last year in the establishment of refuges, and I have a group of editorials that came in only yesterday. Of course, the bill has been out only a short time, and the States from which these editorials came are New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming. I should like to read just a minute or two from these editorials. Here is one from the New York Post: Everywhere lovers of wild birds life will rejoice at the fact that the need of protecting the bald eagle is attracting the attention of Congress, and they will be joined in their rejoicing by those who have a sentimental interest in and desire for the preservation of a bird which has long been the emblem of our national independence. The eagle is already protected in five States; in 39 it is supposed to be protected under the Audubon law, but the birds are killed whenever chance affords, and rarely is any one arrested for the offense. In three States the eagle is on the unprotected list. One State, Wyoming, has no law with reference to nongame birds. |