THE BALANCE OF NATURE. 17 



the worthless hoodie crow much more than she 

 loves the grouse which fetches bs. a brace in our 

 markets. . In 1864, on one large estate nearly 

 400 crows were killed, and at that time there 

 were hardly 100 grouse on the whole property. 

 In 1873 nearly 900 grouse were killed, and 

 about 40 crows. Her arrangement in Scotland 

 of lots of crows and hardly any grouse is no 

 more profitable to Man than her South African 

 arrangement before referred to, when jackals 

 were howling in every wood, and the mutton- 

 giving, wool-bearing sheep were represented by 

 a few creatures whose tails were heavier than 

 their fleeces. 



Mr. Scott Skirving states ' that no bird on 

 earth would be a nuisance if man had not in^ 

 terfered with them.' 



Then why should the wolf or any other 

 animal ? But it is difficult to see how man is 

 to exist or to exercise his dominion over living 

 creatures without interfering ; or, as Dr. Giinther 

 expresses it, ' Man's task is to interfere with the 



c 



