aie & & 
CIVILIZING INFLUENCES. 
To say that the settlement of North America has pro- 
duced a marked effect upon the animal life of the conti- 
nent, and upon the birds as a part of the fanna, may seem 
too much of a truism to be worth discussion. Yet the 
degree to which this effect has been felt, and the various 
ways in which man’s influence has been exerted upon ani- 
mals, may still be objects of interesting inquiry. I confine 
myself alone to the effects produced by the white man, be- 
cause the Indian seems to have caused hardly an apprecia- 
ble change, either for good or evil, in the comparative plen- 
itude, or in the habits, of the creatures dwelling about 
him. He himself was really as wild and indigenous as 
they, hunting, like the carnivores, purely for food, and, with 
the osprey, fishing only when his wants were urgent; his 
mind was too grim to entertain the idea of pursuing ani- 
mals for sport, and his civilization too limited to cause 
much disturbance of natural conditions. 
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