VALUABLE WILD LIFE 3 



schools of the United States will be appealed to, 

 not only for information regarding reforestation, 

 and the insects so destructive to trees, but they will 

 also be called upon to say which species of hawks 

 and owls should be killed, and why; whether all 

 skunks have hydrophobia, and how the gray wolf 

 population may really be reduced. Even yet, 

 wherever large forests remain, there will some 

 remnants of our former abundance of wild life be 

 found. This being the case, it is easily concluded 

 that the men who have to deal with our forests 

 should entertain toward birds, mammals, reptiles 

 and fishes a degree of interest and sympathy that 

 will be manifested in practical protection. We hold 

 that toward our remnant of wild life, every forest 

 ranger, every teacher of forestry and every intelli- 

 gent American in general, has a solemn duty which 

 no conscientious man can evade. 



The Balance of Animate Nature is a subject so 

 well understood by every thoughtful student that 

 it is unnecessary to dwell upon it in detail. To the 

 field naturalist, and the explorer who visits un- 

 spoiled lands, it is a subject full of entertainment 

 and delight. In our boyhood days, that is to say 

 about forty years ago, when birds were abundant 

 all over the United States, not even excepting the 

 arboreal deserts, the birds devoured the noxious 

 insects, the hawks and owls devoured the undesired 

 increase of wild rats and mice, and the owls, foxes 

 and lynxes reduced the surplus rabbits. Any 



