INTRODUCTION 5 1 



remedy of artificial breeding - places, it would have 

 vanished from our tables long ago. The Thames 

 has long been deserted. 



We can understand now how it is that civilisation 

 acts in this way on animal-life. We saw, in considering 

 regions and biocoenoses, that physical conditions form 

 the essential foundation of an animal-world. But these 

 are altered by civilisation, and thus we realise once 

 more how fundamental the idea of biocoenosis is. 



What can we do in face of this increasing devastation 

 of the country? 



Is a time coming when our forests will again have 

 luxuriant under-wood, in spite of the reduction in the 

 output of timber ? Possibly. But it seems more 

 likely that civilisation will crush Nature under its iron 

 feet ; that the days are approaching when the 

 nightingale and the robin will be legendary shapes 

 in a remote past. Perhaps in those days there will 

 be a race on the earth that will tell, with a pitying 

 smile, how there were once human beings whose 

 heart was more stirred by the song of an unseen 

 bird than by the music of artificial automata. 



