CHAPTER IV 



ANIMAL PESTS AND THEIR RATIONAL 

 TREATMENT 



To any one who attempts to deal with problems 

 and campaigns for the benefit of wild animals, the 

 so-called wild-animal pests quickly become of prac- 

 tical importance. Civilized man is prone to go 

 about with a chip on his shoulder and a gun in his 

 hand, looking for some bird or mammal that has 

 inflicted damage on some of his sacred possessions, 

 in order that he may kill the accused with a con- 

 science most virtuously clear. The loss of a thirty- 

 cent chicken sometimes arouses a twenty- dollar 

 indignation in the breast of a poultry farmer, 

 regardless of a credit balance of perhaps $30 in the 

 hawk's account for rats and mice destroyed. 



To know precisely what the real pests are among 

 wild mammals and birds seems very much worth 

 while. This knowledge is necessary to the forester, 

 first, in order that he may protect the innocent, and 

 secondly, that the guilty may be brought to justice. 

 Again, there are times in particular localities when 

 the local individuals of a species generally believed 

 harmless, or even valuable, actually may become a 

 nuisance so serious as to require abatement. 



