NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



we would indignantly demand that such vandalism 

 should cease. On the other hand, we stand idly by 

 while the birds, which are God's agents in keeping 

 down insect pests, are slain simply for a few feathers 

 or to provide a mouthful or two of food. One bird 

 alive is worth a thousand dead. 



Millions of money is spent on irrigation and in 

 fighting insects by artificial methods, but little atten- 

 tion, money, or thought is given to the utilisation, 

 protection, and encouragement of Nature's insect 

 destroyers by the states and nations of the world. 



AESTHETIC AND SENTIMENTAL 

 VALUE OF BIRDS 



Without birds it would be to us like living in a 

 house with interior walls unplastered and no decora- 

 tions or other artistic furnishings. Man is not 

 destined to live for the gratification of animal desires 

 and passions only. He has been created for higher 

 purposes. He is destined to go on steadily unfolding 

 and developing his moral, altruistic, and spiritual 

 faculties. A muscle will not grow in strength unless 

 it is systematically exercised. Neither will any of the 

 brain centres. If a man lives in the back kitchen of 

 his brain, or, in other words, if he only uses the parts 

 of his brain which he has in common with lower 

 animals, those brain centres will grow increasingly 



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