viii PREFACE 
Excellent as is in itself the maintenance of such 
forests aS remain, such conservation has an addi- 
tional value in that the rescue of woodlands cannot 
but mean rescue of their inhabitants; it cannot 
but mean intelligent appreciation of both—nature 
watched close is nature cared for. 
Like all labour such as gardening, bee-keeping, 
fruit-growing, agriculture—work dealing at first- 
hand with the soil,—it calls forth the faculty of 
observation, the faculty which was, I suppose, 
the primal assistant sense to ancestral man in 
his struggle for life: our forbears, who reasoned 
on the evolution of the sabre-toothed tiger, stood 
but a meagre chance in comparison with those 
who noted the depredations of the monster, 
the disappearance of their offspring, and removed 
themselves from the precarious locality. Few, 
in fact, of us are reasoning animals, but every 
man surely on one subject or another can note 
and learn. 
With wiser views as to the indispensability of 
trees and birds, it may now be expected that our 
ruined forests will be encouraged to re-establish 
themselves, this time not valued only by the few 
for esthetic or biological reasons but whole- 
heartedly and open-facedly by all for commercial 
purposes; for certain it is that until humanity 
can be content to care for objects lovely in them- 
selves, for themselves, and to enjoy beauty without 
