146 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



mainland have prevented any such fatal crystallization 

 of its organisms as we see in islands like St, Helena* 

 That any English species would be exterminated by 

 foreign competition is extremely unlikely ; whether 

 we introduce exotic birds or not, the only losses we 

 shall have to deplore in the future will, like those of 

 the past, be directly due to our own insensate action 

 in slaying every rare and beautiful thing with powder 

 and shot. From the introduction of exotic species 

 nothing is to be feared, but much to be hoped* 



There is another point which should not be 

 overlooked. It has, after all, become a mere fiction 

 to say that all places are occupied. Nature's nice 

 order has been destroyed, and her kingdom thrown 

 into the utmost confusion ; our action tends to 

 maintain the disorderly condition, while she is 

 perpetually working against us to re-establish order. 

 When she multiplies some common, little-regarded 

 species to occupy a space left vacant by an artificially 

 exterminated kind, the species called in as a mere 

 stop-gap, as it were, is one not specially adapted in 

 structure and instincts to a particular mode of life, 

 and consequently cannot fully and effectually occupy 

 the ground into which it has been permitted to 

 enter. To speak in metaphor, it enters merely as a 

 caretaker or ignorant and improvident steward in 

 the absence of the rightful owner. Again, some of 

 our ornamental species, which are fast diminish- 



