i68 
The Balance of Nature . 
r April, 
breeding season only, and all the rest of the year he is 
continually in mischief. The evils which have in some in- 
stances seemed to follow his local extirpation are probably 
due, as Mr. Morant very judiciously suggests, to the simul- 
taneous destruction of other birds. Perhaps his worst 
attribute is that he drives away birds which are at once more 
useful and more beautiful than himself. His attacks upon 
the nests of the swallow are well known, and he sometimes 
drags the helpless nestlings from their cradle and throws 
them to the ground. One of the most difficult points in 
practical ornithology is how to preserve other birds without 
encouraging the sparrow also. Mr. Morant remarks — 
“ Netting them in winter is quite a legitimate way of 
destroying them, and if they are shot from a trap next 
morning they will have a chance to escape.” We quote 
this passage as showing a curious idiosyncracy of the 
mind of the sportsman. Either the sparrow deserves to 
die or he does not. If he deserves death, why give him 
a “ chance ” of life ? If he does not deserve it, why seek 
to kill him ? We hold that whatever is worth doing at all 
is worth doing with absolute certainty, and that “ chance ” 
wherever possible should be altogether eliminated. 
We see, in fine, that though a “ balance of Nature ” 
exists it is incompatible with the presence of civilised man, 
who is unable to avoid disturbing it even if anxious for its 
preservation. Hence, how much soever we may approve of 
the practice of Waterton and of his disciples, in a number 
of cases we cannot accept them as safe guides. Their gene- 
ral principle, indeed, as Mr. Morant argues, is fundamentally 
vitiated by the faCt that Waterton carried on his observa- 
tions in a country where all the more formidable beasts of 
prey have been long ago extirpated. If it be wrong now to 
root out the polecat, why was it right in former centuries to 
exterminate the wolf, the bear, and the lynx ? To reduce 
ad absurdum the system of letting animated nature alone, 
we need only try its operations in Assam, Java, the Cape, or 
any other country still blessed with man-devouring cats and 
with thanatophidia. Regarding therefore this original 
balance as provisional, and suitable merely to the absence 
of man, we have to establish a new equilibrium. But here 
we have quite as decidedly to rejeCt Mr. Morant’s funda- 
mental principle, which is evidently no safe guide. Still 
more strongly must we protest against the conduCt of those 
who, without enquiry, kill every creature they suspeCt of 
mischief. 
But having thus expressed our dissent from the views of 
