GAME PRESERVES 157 



Canyon of the Colorado; and, as long as conditions in 

 Africa are kept as they are now, the railway journey from 

 Mombasa to Nairobi will enable a man to see before his 

 eyes the splendid fauna which has made wild Africa through- 

 out historic times the marvel of the earth, and can get a 

 glimpse of just what a world it was upon which our beast- 

 like ancestors gazed in Pleistocene times. 



Surely, every one ought to prize the song-birds — indeed, 

 all the birds of the garden, the field, and the woodland. 

 They are the allies of man in his fight against destructive 

 insects, and a knowledge of how to appreciate them adds 

 incalculably to the pleasure of living. Public opinion, 

 backing up law, should make it impossible to destroy our 

 bird life. Moreover, as we grow really civilized we will de- 

 cline to permit the existence of that base commercialism, 

 and the base vanity to which it panders, which would totally 

 destroy beautiful forms of life, whether at home or abroad, 

 to gratify either the epicure or the devotee of fashion. The 

 skins of humming-birds and the plumes of herons should 

 never be used for ornament, and the sale of these skins, and 

 the sale of any game bird or game animal which is becom- 

 ing rare for the purpose of food, should be forbidden by 

 law. There are plenty of birds with ornamental plumage 

 and plenty of species of game animals, just as there are 

 plenty of fur-bearing animals, which can be preserved or 

 bred under conditions that render them all aUke proper 

 objects for consumption. 



In Africa commercial hunting is the cause of the de- 

 struction of the ordinary game. The skin hunters, if per- 

 mitted to have their way, will kill every zebra and antelope, 

 every giraflPe and buffalo in the land, and turn what was 



