46 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



In the second chapter he writes as follows : 



" For educated, civilized man to exterminate a valuable 

 wild species of living things is a crime. It is a crime 

 against his own children and posterity. 



" No man has a right, either moral or legal, to destroy 

 or squander an inheritance of his children that he holds 

 for them in trust. And man, the wasteful and greedy 

 spendthrift that he is, has not created even the humblest 

 of the species of birds, mammals and fishes that adorn 

 and enrich the earth. ' The earth is THE LORD'S 

 and the fullness thereof ! ' With all his wisdom, man 

 has not placed here so much as a ground squirrel, a 



sparrow, or a clam The wild things of the earth 



are not ours to do with as we please. They have been 

 given us in trust, and we must account for them to the 

 generations which will come after us and audit our 

 accounts. 



" But man, the shameless destroyer of Nature's gifts, 

 blithely and persistently destroys one species after another. 

 Fully 10 per cent, of the human race consists of people 

 who will lie, steal, throw rubbish in parks, and destroy 

 forests and wild life whenever and wherever they can do 

 so without being stopped by a policeman and a club. 

 These are hard words, but they are absolutely true. From 

 10 per cent, (or more) of the human race, the high moral 

 instinct which is honest without compulsion is absent. 

 The things that seemingly decent citizens men posing 

 as gentlemen will do to wild game when they secure 

 great chances of slaughter, are appalling. I could fill 

 a book with cases in point. 



" To-day the women of England, Europe and else- 

 where are directly promoting the extermination of scores 

 of beautiful species of wild birds by the persistence with 

 which they buy and wear feather ornaments made of 



