THE PRESERVATION OF OUR FAUNA 185 



is the Economic argument. The lay and commercial 

 mind understands this line of reasoning. Your animal 

 is or may be of value to whom or what ? to mankind 

 in general; of value commercially; of value as a means of 

 checking the increase of, or even of destroying, something 

 else which appears detrimental to human welfare; of 

 value as food for some other creature whose body or 

 products are a commercial or agricultural (one and the 

 same thing) asset for man. It must therefore be pro- 

 tect 2d, not for its own sake, but for the welfare of another, 

 must indeed be exploited for that other man. For this 

 reason (and, are we ashamed to say, for this reason only ?) 

 exists our Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, striving to 

 regulate the numerical proportions of certain creatures, 

 and to instil its doctrines into a rather slow and old- 

 fashioned constituency. 



So far so good: since man has a right to exist, even 

 though we class him as but a competing animal, he must 

 use all his arts and sciences, the product of his superior 

 brain, to accomplish his ends. I do not condemn him; 

 indeed, I strongly uphold the study of economic zoology 

 and botany, and especially advocate that sensible assist- 

 ance should be given with this end in view to our schools 

 and universities. Unless we treat such delicate matters 

 in a truly scientific manner we shall find ourselves in a 

 more parlous state than we are at present. It is not to the 

 academic mind that we need to appeal, but to the great 

 body of electors whose duty it is to send as representatives 

 men who will realise that science is the driving power in 

 life, and that science without education is impossible. 

 The economic argument may not be disinterested, but it 

 is important, very important indeed. 



The second argument for protection is the Esthetic 

 one, and this, with a few exceptions, is confined to propa- 

 ganda on the subject of bird preservation. Bird pro- 



