The Evolution of Organisms 149 



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(beside which national debts are trifling) and 

 mortgaging in the direst sense future generations, 

 so surely is it doomed to disappear, and justly 

 "in the gathering blackness of the frown of God." 

 Or the other hand, we may strengthen our hands 

 in the assurance that no race is likely to be lost in 



great sail a veritable ship of the wilderness," Mr. Hud- 

 son writes as follows: 



" Rhea-hunting, the 'wild mirth of the desert/ which 

 the native horseman has known for the last three centuries, 

 is now passing away, for the Rhea's fleetness can no longer 

 avail him. He may scorn the horse and his rider, what 

 time he lifts himself up, but the cowardly murderous 

 methods of science, and a systematiciwar of extermination, 

 have left him no chance. And with the Rhea go the fla- 

 mingo, antique and splendid, and the swans in their 

 bridal plumage and the rufous tinamou sweet and 

 mournful melodist of the eventide; and the noble crested 

 screamer, that clarion-voiced watch-bird of the night in 

 the wilderness. These, and the other large avians, to- 

 gether with the finest of the mammalians, will shortly be 

 lost to the pampas as utterly as the great bustard is to 

 England, and as the wild turkey and bison and many other 

 species will shortly be lost to North America. Like immor- 

 tal flowers they have drifted down to us on the ocean of 

 time, and their strangeness and beauty bring to our 

 imaginations a dream and a picture of that unknown 

 world immeasurably far removed." 



What can be done to stop this? We should abstain 

 from all products which mean the extinction of fine types; 

 we should try to appreciate what is being lost in their 

 aesthetic, scientific, and economic aspects; we should raise 

 a prejudice against ruthless sport; and at the worst we 

 should try to secure the conservation of tracts of country 

 in which the waning life may be preserved. 



