INTRODUCTION 49 



our own children. How fine it is to watch him in his 

 splendid flight ! 



This " American " habit of looking only to the useful 

 is odious, and unworthy of a poetic and imaginative 

 race. We regard with pleasure the re-birth of the 

 historical sense the increasing regard for monuments 

 of former days. Let us take care, then, to preserve 

 the animals that are as much connected with the 

 poetry and feeling of our race as historical reminiscences. 



We may now ask how it is that man is able to 

 extinguish whole species of animals, a thing which ho 

 other animal can do? 



It is not so much by powder and shot, not so much 

 by snaring and poisoning, as by the changes he makes 

 in the country. In spite of all snares the number of 

 foxes increases steadily in the Black Forest, because 

 it is impossible to dig up their homes in the rocks. 

 The field-mouse has not diminished in spite of all 

 attacks; neither has the lark, though the Italians bring 

 them down in swarms. 



It is civilisation alone that changes the fauna of a 

 country. If our forests were not cleared, and our 

 marshes not dried up, the dry branches would still 

 snap under the tread of the bison and the elk, and 

 the wolf would still threaten the flocks. Modern 

 forestry is slowly but surely destroying the wealth 

 of bird-life, as the thinning of the trees and the brush 

 deprives the birds of their nesting-places. It is not 

 cats, or weasels, or foxes, but the disappearance of 

 the thick bushes, that is robbing us of the song of 

 the nightingale. This has been recognised of late 



