A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



hate their sick fellows; they will bite them and drive them 

 away without compunction. To us such behaviour seems cruel, 

 but it is merely a measure of self-protection. If a sick animal 

 were retained in the herd the latter would constantly be 

 followed by beasts of prey, so that the rest would never be out 

 of danger. 



By always seizing upon the sick and weakly animals, the carnivora 

 protect the rest from infection and degeneration. The weaker 

 animals are devoured before they are mature, so that they cannot 

 bring forth young to inherit their weakly bodies. The carnivora are, 

 amongst other things, the sanitary police of Nature ; they are, so to 

 speak, her physicians. 



As in Europe, so in America, one hears of cases in which the 

 extermination of beasts of prey has been productive not of good 

 but of mischievous results. In Florida the destruction of the alligators 

 was followed by an increase of other pests, such as the venomous 

 moccasin snakes ; in Louisiana the musk-rats multiplied exceedingly, 

 and did much damage to crops by extensive burrowing. In India 

 various villages have protested against the shooting of the tigers, 

 because these feed chiefly on wild swine, which, in the absence of 

 their enemies, multiply so rapidly and become so audacious that 

 the villagers may lose their whole harvest. These tigers, however, 

 do not attack man. 



In a state of Nature the distinction between useful and noxious 

 animals does not exist. Every animal, whether hunter or quarry, 

 is in its place in the great mechanism, and a necessary part of the 

 whole. This really goes without saying, for however far we go back 

 in the world's history, wherever we find life there we shall find 

 beasts of prey. They have always existed, and nevertheless animal 

 life has been abundant and flourishing. The human physician 

 confines his attentions to the sick ; Nature appHes herself to keeping 

 the healthy in health; and if we compare the wholesome world 

 of the animals with the world of man and his domestic creatures — 

 plagued with all sorts of illnesses, with obesity, and weak sight, and 

 other infirmities — we shall form a diflferent idea of the apparent 

 cruelty of Nature, and declare that she is the better and more 

 merciful physician. 



Nothing, therefore, could be more foolish than to play the judge, 

 and to attempt to sentence the carnivora to death on account 

 of their "bloodthirsty nature." It is not their fault that their intes- 

 tines are adapted only to a flesh diet, and any reproach is really 



198 



