x PREFACE 
As Mrs Gamp has pointed out, we are born into 
a “wale of tears,” and must take the conse- 
quences of being “found in sich a sitivation.” 
It remains for us to make it less of a “ wale 
of tears” by conserving for the future every- 
thing precious and picturesque. Why should we 
paint life drab for the unfortunates who have 
yet to come? Why should man and the rat 
possess the face of the habitable globe? Why 
should the sparrow be the only bird? I don’t 
say we shall quite come to that, but certain it is 
that with every species eliminated, by so much 
is the world robbed of light and colour. 
In that fatal annihilation of irreplaceable forms 
of life, the equivalents of Scott and Shakespeare 
or Burns and Keats and Wordsworth are sacri- 
ficed. Heaven help us poor mortals if an abomin- 
able utilitarianism is to chill the world like an 
eclipse, if what we call civilisation is to mean 
only the survival of man, if Bread and the Circus 
is to be the aspiration of all mankind. We collect 
and treasure lovely plants from every range and 
valley the world over. Why not at least in their 
own localities ensure the birds and animals of the 
world ? 
We have then in 1925 reached a point when 
quite a considerable minority are realising the 
evils of the past—sins of wanton forest fires, 
insensibility in regard to diminution of bird life. 
