EFFECTS UPON ANIMAL LIFE 361 



both in former times tolerably free from the direct interference 

 of man. The former disappeared, reappeared (mainly by 

 introduction), and increased with extraordinary rapidity while 

 the latter was steadily on the decline. The reason appears 

 to lie in this, that while the older trees favoured by the 

 Woodpeckers were gradually being destroyed, new planting 

 had created a fresh supply of food which satisfied and en- 

 couraged the Squirrel. But these new plantations had no 

 power to check the decline of the Woodpecker, to which old 

 trees only are of value for nesting, so that, apparently in the 

 midst of plenty, it was starved for lack of nesting sites. 



While I have chosen typical forest animals to illustrate 

 the effects of the destruction of the forest, it must not be 

 forgotten that the influence of the destruction spread far and 

 wide throughout the native fauna. While only creatures 

 vitally connected with woodland suffered extinction, every 

 animal that sought the woods at one part or another of the 

 year, for food, for breeding, or for temporary shelter, suffered 

 in its numbers, in its range or in its habits from the disap- 

 pearance of its haunts. It is not necessary to suppose that 

 a complete disappearance of woods was necessary to influence 

 the forest animals, for to many of them constant disturbance 

 of their lairs or breeding-places is almost as fatal as the total 

 destruction of these places of rest and shelter. 

 t Yet it must not be forgotten that if the destruction of the 

 forest told heavily against the woodland creatures, it favoured 

 the increase of other races, for " give and take " is one of 

 Nature's fundamental principles. A single recent example, 

 recorded in the Field of 1908 from the Game Book of a 

 Perthshire estate, will sufficiently illustrate this truth. In the 

 season 1820-21 the bag of Grouse on this estate numbered 

 259. Immediately afterwards the moor was planted, and 

 the Grouse disappeared. In the early seventies the timber 

 came to maturity and was cut down, and in 1873-4, where 

 few Grouse had been seen for fifty years, 252 were killed. 

 The destruction of woodland prepared the way for new 

 growths of heather and for the return and increase of Grouse. 



I cannot turn from this study of the relationship between 

 forests and animals without wondering to what extent the. 

 new and wide destruction of Scottish woods, caused by the 

 needs of the War, will affect the few truly. forest animals which 



