174 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



fatal crystallization of its organisms as we see 

 in islands like St. Helena. That any English 

 species would be exterminated by foreign com- 

 petition is extremely unlikely; whether we intro- 

 duce exotic birds or not, the only losses we shall 

 have to deplore in the future will, like those of 

 the past, be directly due to our own insensate 

 action in slaying every rare and beautiful thing 

 with powder and shot. From the introduction 

 of exotic species nothing is to be feared, but much 

 to be hoped. 



There is another point which should not be 

 overlooked. It has after all become a mere fic- 

 tion to say that all places are occupied. Nature's 

 nice order has been destroyed, and her kingdom 

 thrown into the utmost confusion; our action 

 tends to maintain the disorderly condition, while 

 she is perpetually working against us to re-estab- 

 lish order. When she multiplies some common, 

 little-regarded species to occupy a space left 

 vacant by an artificially exterminated kind, the 

 species called in as a mere stop-gap, as it were, 

 is one not specially adapted in structure and in- 

 stincts to a particular mode of life, and conse- 

 quently cannot fully and effectually occupy the 



