198 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



wholesale and usually wasteful methods that this unde- 

 sirable end is evident. The African native, who in his 

 pitfalls slew wholesale for the sake of obtaining food, did 

 less havoc than the trading sportsman who found ivory 

 and other products meant wealth in other words 

 supplied more than was necessary for his welfare but not 

 for his desired wealth. The Red Indian was not gifted 

 with foresight in his attack" upon the bison, but he failed 

 to destroy it until commercial Western civilisation took 

 a hand; then the vast herds soon ceased to exist. Mr. 

 H. J. Massingham says that " in many ways, our attitude 

 to animals is still very barbarous and very imperfectly 

 consistent. But it must be remembered that these 

 barbarisms are partly vestigiary relics of an unenlightened 

 past and partly the consequences of the detestable pre- 

 datory spirit directly encouraged by commercialism."* 

 Not only do I endorse this, but I would add my belief 

 that the ancient barbaric attitude, cruel, wasteful, blind 

 though it was, was more in harmony with nature than 

 the greedy, commercial, devil-take-the-hindmost spirit 

 of the so-called intelligent man of the present day who, 

 for his own gain, exploits the weaker brain power of less 

 highly developed creatures. Granted, however, that a 

 certain amount of disturbance is bound to follow any 

 effort for advance, it is all the more necessary that we 

 should take steps which will involve change only after 

 carefully considering the cost; this cannot be estimated 

 until we have so studied, to the best of our ability, the 

 life history of all living creatures, that we may gain some 

 knowledge of how far one depends upon another. Further- 

 more, any interference with what I have called the arti- 

 ficial natural balance must be watched with an open mind. 

 This last point may be illustrated by a practical case. 

 One of the questions which has constantly puzzled those 

 * Massingham, " Some Birds of the Countryside," 1921. 



