100 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



have resulted disastrously. Let it be borne in mind 

 that the introduction of any strange species is 

 attended with risks, and should not be undertaken 

 save under expert advice and after the most careful 

 consideration. 



On general principles it is dangerous to meddle 

 with the laws of nature, and attempt to improve on 

 the code of the wilderness. Our best wisdom in 

 such matters may in the end prove to be only short- 

 sighted folly. The trouble lies in the fact that con- 

 cerning the transplantation of a species it is impos- 

 sible for us to know beforehand all that will affect 

 it, and all that it will affect. In its own home a 

 species may seem not only harmless, but actually 

 beneficial to man. We do not know, and we can 

 not know, all the influences that keep it in check, 

 and repress its latent propensities for evil. We do 

 not know, and we can not know without a trial, how 

 new environment will affect it, or what new traits 

 of character it may develop. The gentle dove of 

 Albion may easily become the tyrant dove of 

 Cathay. The repressed rabbit of the Old World 

 becomes in Australia the uncontrollable rabbit, a 

 devastator and a pest of pests. 



It is now against the laws of the United States to 

 introduce here and acclimatize in a wild state any 

 wild-bird species without the approval of the 

 Department of Agriculture. The entry of the Old 

 World mongoose and the huge fruit-bat known as 

 the flying fox, is absolutely prohibited. I regard 



