1 8 T. A. Coward — Presidential Address 



prominent bird protector, now no more, did his utmost to help, 

 in extinction of this subspecies. 



The Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain recently called attention in 

 the Times to the havoc of commercialism amongst the eiders 

 of Spitzbergen. The motor on the sailing sloop is the engine 

 of destruction, for it enables the ep-o- and down-hunters to 

 enter bays and inlets which were unsafe before its introduc- 

 tion. One sloop, at the end of last June, had on board '' no 

 fewer than 15,000 eggs." The remnant of the Spitzbergen 

 eiders may be saved when there are so few that it no longer 

 pays to exploit them, but, unfortunately, even this has not 

 saved every persecuted species. 



One of the worst destructive features is the intentional 

 introduction of animals to a land to which they are alien. 

 This is usually due to sentiment, but often to a desire, 

 apparently harmless, of improving the fauna by the addition 

 of attractive animals. The result of this well-meaning but 

 mistaken policy is never satisfactory, at any rate for many, 

 very many years. There is no middle course. The intro- 

 duced creature either finds life so hard in the new land, and 

 enemies so numerous that it dies out at once, or it finds condi- 

 tions so favourable and natural checks so few that it increases 

 rapidly and some less fitted native succumbs to give it room. 

 Many efforts have been made to improve and increase the 

 variety of our game stock, but whereas the barbary partridge, 

 the willow grouse, the colin, bob-white, button quail, and 

 even tinamou have been tried and failed, the red-legged 

 partridge has established itself, and the various pheasants 

 have settled down. Amongst mammals the reindeer, wapiti, 

 and beaver rank amongst the failures, the rabbit is perhaps 

 the best instance of a successful colonist; so far has it estab- 

 lished itself that we now count it as native, and realise that it 

 has reached that stage when an artificial natural balance wath 

 other forms is stable. But can we not guess that awful 

 dislocation of the balance amongst native forms occurred 

 before the rabbit found its level ; how many creatures whose 

 absence we mourn may have owed their decline to competi- 

 tion with the rabbit ? What it can do when placed in an 

 alien land we know, for is not Australia still faced with the 

 problem, and have not other efforts to check it by introducing 

 its foes — stoat, weasel, dog, cat, and fox — all had bad results, 

 the destruction of the native fauna or the colonists' stock, 

 but not of the prolific alien. 



Later enthusiasts have brought us the little owl and grey 

 squirrel, and we have yet to see the full results of the folly of 



