204 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



the pine marten, badger, and otter are threatened with 

 extinction; the polecat and wild cat have within our time 

 followed the wolf and bear. The raven once nested in 

 our midst, but now only exists in the wilds ; the lesser fry 

 have suffered, too, though in a smaller degree. It was 

 woe to many creatures when gunpowder came into 

 general use, it was the end when the lethal weapon was 

 " improved/ 1 



When engaged in warfare against the smaller creatures, 

 especially those which are in reality his parasites, man 

 usually fails to destroy, though he may succeed in keeping 

 them in check by materially reducing numbers. But 

 when he pits his science and cunning against the less 

 developed intelligence of the larger forms, he can entirely 

 wipe a species out, and often does this in his greed to 

 secure wealth in advance of his human competitors. 

 Thus the rat, sparrow, house-fly, and louse defy his efforts, 

 and until his whole moral outlook changes, for sanitation 

 is a moral question, his cleverest devices will fail to utterly 

 check their ravages. Even then it is doubtful if he will 

 ever destroy the fly and mosquito, though he may render 

 their attacks innocuous. The rat, indeed, persistently 

 following man, has often undone his best work. Its 

 arrival on Lord Howe Island has resulted in the ruin of 

 that successful Australian bird reserve. 



With larger and less numerous animals the fight is more 

 one-sided, for they are not numerous because he is 

 numerous. How effectually he can destroy is shown by 

 the extinction of the vast hordes of passenger pigeons,* 

 the Eskimo curlew, the great auk, and many of the 

 Australian parrots. But we need not go beyond the limits 

 of our own land for examples. It has often been argued 

 that drainage of marshes or cultivation of land explains 



* Man as the sole factor is now doubted. Cf. P. R. Lowe, 

 Ibis, p. I37 



