PART I 



MAN'S DELIBERATE INTERFERENCE 

 WITH ANIMAL LIFE 



THE deliberate interference of man with the wild crea- 

 tures which possessed the land before him has become 

 more and more marked with the passing of time and the 

 development of civilization. In the primitive days, of the 

 simple hunter and fisherman, when the population of the 

 country was limited by the numbers of wild animals and 

 plants available for food and clothing, the effect of this 

 interference was at its lowest. The discovery of even a 

 primitive cultivation of the soil resulted in a regular increase 

 of food supplies and a consequent increase of population. 

 This was followed by the discovery that certain wild animals 

 could be brought under the yoke to become man's coadjutors 

 in the task of tilling the soil, or could be reared as a depend- 

 able source of food; and this discovery led again to a new 

 and great increase in numbers of the human race. To the 

 needs of this vast and still multiplying population, far out- 

 numbering the stock which a wild country could support, 

 can be traced most of the influences which have played 

 directly upon animal life in Scotland. Domestic stock had 

 perforce to be increased in numbers, its useful qualities 

 improved ; the undefended flocks and herds had to be pro- 

 tected from beasts and birds of prey and smaller vermin, 

 against which a war of destruction and often of extermina- 

 tion had to be waged. Other creatures of the wilds were 

 slaughtered for the value of their carcases as food, or their 

 pelts as clothing; others again were introduced or protected 

 because of the services they rendered man as a grower of 

 crops, or of the pleasures they afforded him as a sportsman. 

 The following chapters endeavour to trace the main effects 

 of man's direct interference with animal life in Scotland, 

 though it must be kept in mind that there can be no direct 



