MAMMALS AND THE HUNTER 87 



and fish for their flesh, skins and other by-products, it is equally right 

 to kill wild game for the same purpose. Furthermore, since we have 

 destroyed many of the natural enemies of game animals predatory 

 animals that prey upon the others unless a certain amount of hunting 

 be permitted the game animals in some regions, as has been shown by 

 actual experience, would soon become so abundant as to do great dam- 

 age to crops. In some cases they perhaps would speedily destroy their 

 own food supply and possibly become exterminated locally or entirely 

 extinct through starvation and the diseases that accompany under- 

 nourishment and the crowding of too many animals into a given area. 

 Consequently, the course that is approved by all naturalists, whose 

 business it is to study and understand such matters, is midway between 

 the two extremes of unrestricted hunting on the one hand and com- 

 plete protection of wild animals on the other. 



