2 INFLUENCE OF MAN ON MAMMALS, 



year rendered the hare rarer than it has ever been previously, 

 indeed it has swept this graceful denizen of the fields, this 

 delight of every lover of nature, as well as unrivalled nourish- 

 ment for the sick, almost out of certain counties, and may lead 

 to its almost total extinction ; the wolf has disappeared, while 

 the badger is scarce, and where, we may ask, would the red deer, 

 the roe and the fox have been if a measure of protection had 

 not been meted out to them ? Man's interference caused the 

 extinction within a generation of the huge Rhytina (sea-cow), 

 though it was more or less marine in habit, and in the present day 

 the dugong and the manatee are diminishing and may follow 

 their relative. As a rule, it is not difficult for man to influence 

 land-animals whether for abundance or scarcity. Yet even here, 

 under favourable surroundings, certain forms, as the rabbit in 

 Australia, the lemmings in Norway and Sweden, the rats and 

 mice of our houses, prove more than a match for his most potent 

 checks. In the vegetable world, again, it is an arduous and 

 often fruitless task to extirpate many plants — even with man's 

 ingenuity and opportunities. Nature provides in the majority 

 a vast number of seeds, far beyond what is required for the 

 preservation of the species, indeed the older naturalists pointed 

 to this as a wise provision for the support of animals. It is 

 only when we come to the larger slow-growing kinds that the 

 action of man is so destructive, and yet the number of seeds in 

 the larger trees, as the pines, acacias and others, is very great, 

 30,000 for instance occurring in such as Mimosa Lebhec. Man's 

 easy access and abundant opportunities are, however, very 

 different from the conditions existing in the ocean. 



Even in the domain of the air, which in its vastness excels 

 that of the sea, the effects of man's interference — secondary 

 though it may be — is often noteworthy, mainly because its 

 denizens deposit their eggs or young on the surface of the land, 

 and thus, though the adults may wing their way into the ether, 

 and even feed therein, as in the case of the bats and swallows, 

 the helpless young and eggs are within his reach. In the 

 flightless birds the same rules apply as in the land-mammals, 

 and how few of these now live ! The moa, the great auk, and 

 the dodo have gone, and the ostrich, emu, cassowary and kiwi 



