XIX. 



THE BALANCE OF NATURE. 



IT may be assumed to be a generally accepted 

 proposition that every creature has its own 

 appointed use and purpose, and has its place in 

 the whole scheme of creation ; yet it is also true 

 that we constantly hear animals, beasts or 

 birds, spoken of as belonging to one or other 

 category of the noxious or innocuous. We have 

 indeed a somewhat unpleasant word to designate 

 the former, a word that has travelled far from 

 its original meaning; we call them 'vermin/ 

 When, however, we give the matter closer con- 

 sideration, it will be found by no means an easy 

 task to draw hard and fast lines separating, as 

 it were, the sheep from the goats. We find it 

 to be a matter of proportion, circumstances, 

 and surroundings, just as ' dirt ' was properly 

 described as matter in the wrong place. 



In India, in districts where game is still 

 plentiful, the tiger is looked upon by the native 

 cultivator as a benefactor who keeps down the 



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