Museum Notes 5

In the particular matter to which you allude, namely the former absence of
earthworms from British Columbia, there is considerable supporting evidence. While
it is probable that Lord’s statement is too general and sweeping, it is equally probable
that for much of that region it was substantially correct.

Very little is actually known of the earthworms of British Columbia, but I should
expect them to differ little from those of Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
The native forms described from these states are mostly small ones of restricted
distribution in uncultivated and marsh lands. The true earthworms, the larger ones
at least, found in garden and farm lands are nearly all of European species.

Here in the East “European” earthworms have almost entirely replaced endemic
species in the cultivated areas. The native species must be sought in undisturbed spots
and in the few remaining areas still largely free from European settlement.

It used to be stated that the prairie lands of certain sections of our Middle West
were free from earthworms. Now these rich farm lands are inhabited by species
transported from Europe and the East. Native species are to be found in restricted
areas.”

Mrs. Edith Berkeley, of Departure Bay, who has worked on the marine annelids
of this Coast, writes as follows: “I have from time to time examined earthworms
that came in my way, both in and near Vancouver, and at Departure Bay, and have
only found European species that were probably introduced. I have never found any
earthworms away in the woods or during our climbing trips.”

The following account of the magpie is worth quoting: “To the packer the magpies
are dire enemies. If a pack-mule or horse has a gall, and happens to be turned out
to graze with the wound uncovered, down come the magpies on its back; clinging with
their sharp claws, reckless of every effort to displace them, they peck away at the
wound; the tortured beast rolls madly and for a short time the scoundrels are obliged
to let go, but only to swoop down again the instant a chance offers. This repeated
agony soon kills an animal unless the packers rescue it.

We had frightful trouble with magpies at our winter mule-camp near Colville.
They gradually accumulated to eat the offal and what there was besides, until they
were in hundreds, and became perfectly unbearable. Shooting at them was only wast-
ing valuable ammunition. The packers were driven almost into a state of revolt. We
had an old maimed suffering mule which was to be killed, so the packers gave it a
ball containing a large dose of strychnine; death was immediate, and the carcase, ‘ere
ten minutes had elapsed, was covered with magpies working at the eyes, lips, sores,
and soft skin inside the thighs. It was the most singular spectacle I ever witnessed.
One after the other the birds rolled from off the dead mule, and, as they fell and died,
others greedily took their vacant places; and so this terrible slaughter went on until
the heaps of dead magpies nearly buried the body of the mule. Two foxes, one coyote,
several Indian dogs and a large wolf, on the day following the mule’s demise, lay dead
by the side of the poisoned birds. It was a terrible revenge—how far justifiable is a
matter of opinion. The packers, of course, were in wild glee at the entire success of
the scheme.”

It has been suggested that this account, also is exaggerated. Quite recently, how-
ever, Major Allan Brooks gave instances of sheep being killed by having their kidneys
pecked out by magpies, which he describes as still the worst bird pest in the province
and far more destructive than the crow. In former days they were undoubtedly much
more abundant than they are now.