208 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



entail the passing of species, two questions may with 

 reason be asked. Why should we endeavour to preserve 

 any of those animals which are so feeble that they can 

 no longer compete ? To that I would answer with other 

 questions. Do we desire to see any of the existing forms 

 follow after those which have gone ? And do we look 

 forward with joy to a land, nay a world, peopled only by 

 man, his domesticated slaves, his animate commercial 

 assets and his parasites ? If this is not a pleasant out- 

 look, then what must we do ? 



There are, as I have said, two ways of dealing with 

 protection legislation and public opinion. If we foster 

 the latter the former will follow. But we want our 

 legislation to be wise, and to achieve this our advocacy 

 of the cause must also be wise. Newton, as bird pro- 

 tector, was sarcastic about many methods of its advocates. 

 " The worst is that people will gush and be sentimental 

 . . . the sentimentalists give far more trouble than 

 anyone else." He also refers to the extravagant asser- 

 tions, over-coloured statements of letter writers: " Our 

 wild animals have no great reason to be grateful to their 

 ordinary defenders in the newspapers." It is true. We 

 need moderate, cool statement of fact, based on the study 

 of life in field and laboratory, and the philosophical appli- 

 cation, after careful experiment, of what we have learnt. 

 Above all let us so order our behaviour towards the lower 

 animals that it may not be asserted by the generations to 

 come that the thoughtless, selfish men of the present era 

 destroyed or allowed to be destroyed, for their own com- 

 mercial ends or for their sporting pleasure, creatures which 

 belonged to all time, the men of the future as well as the 

 men of to-day. 



In conclusion. Do these creatures belong either to us or 

 to those who will follow ? Have they not equal rights to 

 a place in the sun ? If so, we are justified only in destroy- 



