SOME FINAL CONCLUSIONS 497 



THE GREAT CHANGE 



How then can we account for our impression of loss in 

 the fauna, since in reality it has gained both in numbers and 

 in variety? The secret lies in the great change. De- 

 struction of feeding grounds and dwelling haunts, as well as 

 deliberate slaughter, makes first for the decrease or extermi- 

 nation of the larger animals, whose demands upon covert and 

 food and whose destructiveness are greater. And while man 

 lops off the giants at the head of the scale he adds insignificant 

 pigmies at the bottom insect marauders which enter un- 

 observed and which are often first noticed, only when they 

 force themselves upon his attention in their myriads. 



The wild fauna has not fallen off in numbers nor in 

 variety, but visible numbers and varieties have gone, and 

 their places have been taken by invisible hordes ; the smaller 

 things have been added in a bigger ratio than the larger 

 have been lost. The standard of the wild fauna as regards 

 size has fallen and is falling. In spite of statistics and of 

 multitudes of species, we have in effect lost more than we 

 have gained, for how can the increase of Rabbits and Sparrows 

 and Earthworms and Caterpillars, and the addition of millions 

 of Rats and Cockroaches and Crickets and Bugs ever take 

 the place of those fine creatures round the memories of which 

 the glamour of Scotland's past still plays the Reindeer and 

 the Elk, the Wolf, the Brown Bear, the Lynx, and the 

 Beaver, the Bustard, the Crane, the bumbling Bittern, and 

 many another, lost or disappearing ? 



