GRAND ROMAINE AND OLD ROMAINE 



with, the boy asked, with a finality not to be 

 gainsaid, "What use are they?" Some work- 

 men looking at a flock of beautiful gulls soar- 

 ing with exquisite grace over the water were 

 overheard to ask the same question: "What 

 use are they?" Ornithologists and nature- 

 lovers are often hard put to it to give so-called 

 practical value to certain birds, so that their 

 lives as individuals and even as species may 

 be safeguarded. 



The aesthetic value of birds — the ]oy which 

 their beauty and grace and their free and 

 happy lives can give to the workers in this 

 sordid world — does not appeal to the thought- 

 less. The naturalist's interest in any rep- 

 resentative in the great evolutionary tree of 

 life, and his sorrow at its extinction and the 

 resulting disturbance of nature's balance, are 

 entirely beyond the comprehension of the or- 

 dinary man. He is satisfied if any species can 

 be shown to be of economic use, but in the 

 absence of this doUars-and-cents value he cares 

 not whether the species lives or dies. The cor- 

 morant is an example of a bird that appears 

 to have no so-called use, and one against 

 which, therefore, bad marks are only too will- 

 105 



