658 The Outline of Science 



on which many snakes feed? Anti-squirrel clubs have been 

 started because of the damage done to young trees. A price is 

 put on the beautiful rodent's head, and the heads come tumbling 

 in. Sometimes, however, the squirrel club has had to be dissolved, 

 because of the over-multiplication of wood-pigeons, which eat 

 enormous quantities of grain, and may mean a serious loss to the 

 farmer. The usually vegetarian squirrel levies toll on the young 

 squabs of the wood-pigeon. 



Just as man encourages rats without wishing to, so he dis- 

 courages wild things without meaning to. Agriculture spreads; 

 marshes are drained; forests are cleared; the stretch of wildness 

 becomes a trim golf-course. Therefore the wild cat becomes a 

 rarity, and the pine-marten disappears; the bittern becomes 

 scarce, and the ruff has all but ceased to nest in Britain. "One 

 hopes, however, that there is a fresh growth of a vivid and deter- 

 mined awareness that creatures like bitterns and badgers are 

 national treasures of real value, not to be sacrificed any longer 

 either to ignorance or to greed." 



4 

 A Multitude of Linkages 



Sir Ray Lankester has summarised the numerous practical 

 relations between man and animals, and it is instructive to con- 

 sider their manif oldness : (a) We capture animals for the sake of 

 their flesh, e.g. hares and rabbits, herring and whitebait. We kill 

 others for parts that are not edible, the whale for its oil and whale- 

 bone, the pearl-oyster for its pearls and mother-of-pearl. (&) 

 Other animals are bred for utilitarian reasons, e.g. pigs for their 

 flesh ; cattle for flesh and milk ; horses for transport ; dogs for their 

 watchfulness; turkeys, geese, and poultry for the table; bees for 

 their honey; silk-moths and sheep for raiment; and so on. Some- 

 times the utility is aesthetic, as in the case of canaries and goldfish. 

 The keeping of pets, from cats to white mice, from parrots to 

 poodles, may be included here, (c) Then there are those animals 



