4 THE IMPOETANCE OF BIRD LIFE 



— ^including disease, climatical alterations, and 

 the elements, as well as living creatures, — deer 

 theoretically would multiply at such a rapid rate 

 that the North American continent would be over- 

 run within a few decades. The soil could not pro- 

 duce sufficient fodder for their needs ; the verdure 

 would be grazed to death. As a result, the deer 

 would starve : the species would die out, extermi- 

 nated by its own prolificacy. 



One of the chief instruments chosen by nature 

 to combat this excessive production is the carni- 

 vore; and the deer, however paradoxical it may 

 sound, is really saved by its most feared and 

 deadly enemies. The Balance of Nature is m.ain- 

 tained, and it is this Balance which permits the 

 world to carry on where otherwise it would choke 

 itself to death. 



Like the deer, birds, if permitted to multiply 

 unmolested, would increase at an appalling rate, 

 four or five times faster than the animals. The 

 avian class by so much the sooner would become 

 extinct through overpopulation. Fortunately for 

 the world in general, unless man is the extermi- 

 nator, such a catastrophe cannot overtake us. 

 The natural enemies of birds are far too numer- 

 ous to permit of so rapid an expansion. 



Despite these enemies, birds survive in untold 

 multitudes. It is due to their superior mode of 

 travel that they are so universally scattered over 



