CHAPTER XVII 



THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE LARGE 

 AMERICAN MAMMALS 



DURING the past five years the question of the effective 

 preservation or the practical extermination of the best 

 wild life of North America has become thoroughly acute. 

 Ever since 1904 the saving of our big game and our birds has 

 completely overshadowed the academic study of those species. 

 Thoughtful and conscientious men and women have acknowl- 

 edged that it is wrong to spend all time and all efforts in 

 studying the anatomy, habits and classification of our birds 

 and mammals in utter indifference to the fact that those very 

 forms are being exterminated. In a professional zoologist, 

 no matter whether his habitat be America, Europe, Asia 

 or Africa, indifference to the proper protection of wild life 

 quickly becomes a crime; and any zoologist who now remains 

 deaf to the distress calls of perishing species is unworthy of 

 his profession, and deserves to be compelled to work for a 

 living. A number of "bird men" and "mammal men" have 

 awakened to a realizing sense of their obligations to living 

 things and are hard at work "on the firing-line," endeavor- 

 ing to save the remnant. 



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