VIII. 



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 fauna, 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. 



