Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/258

198 wholesale and usually wasteful methods that this undesirable end is evident. The African native, who in his pitfalls slew wholesale for the sake of obtaining food, did less havoc than the trading sportsman who found ivory and other products meant wealth—in other words supplied more than was necessary for his welfare but not for his desired wealth. The Red Indian was not gifted with foresight in his attack upon the bison, but he failed to destroy it until commercial Western civilisation took a hand; then the vast herds soon ceased to exist. Mr. H. J. Massingham says that "in many ways, our attitude to animals is still very barbarous and very imperfectly consistent. But it must be remembered that these barbarisms are partly vestigiary relics of an unenlightened past and partly the consequences of the detestable predatory spirit directly encouraged by commercialism." Not only do I endorse this, but I would add my belief that the ancient barbaric attitude, cruel, wasteful, blind though it was, was more in harmony with nature than the greedy, commercial, devil-take-the-hindmost spirit of the so-called intelligent man of the present day who, for his own gain, exploits the weaker brain power of less highly developed creatures. Granted, however, that a certain amount of disturbance is bound to follow any effort for advance, it is all the more necessary that we should take steps which will involve change only after carefully considering the cost; this cannot be estimated until we have so studied, to the best of our ability, the life history of all living creatures, that we may gain some knowledge of how far one depends upon another. Furthermore, any interference with what I have called the artificial natural balance must be watched with an open mind.

This last point may be illustrated by a practical case. One of the questions which has constantly puzzled those