WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



unnecessary slaughter — are only so from our point 

 of view and in his relation to us. 



Apart from the fact that the excessive slaughter 

 of which he is ''guilty'' may have a beneficent 

 purpose and effect in keeping down the too rapid 

 multiplication of mice and other noxious pests 

 whose other natural enemies have been unduly 

 diminished in cultivated regions, it must be re- 

 membered that he is doing only what it is the busi- 

 ness and need of his life to do; and that we hate 

 him principally because he becomes a riva\ and 

 interferes with our own plans in the same direc- 

 tion. Hence the vengeful spirit in which my 

 farmer-friend that morning hurled him down be- 

 fore the dog was as illogical as it was unkind. 



On the whole, philosophically considered^ the 

 difference between the weasel's acts and our own 

 cannot be regarded as really great — to the victims I 



