Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/270

208 entail the passing of species, two questions may with reason he asked. Why should we endeavour to preserve any of those animals which are so feeble that they can no longer compete? To that I would answer with other questions. Do we desire to see any of the existing forms follow after those which have gone? And do we look forward with joy to a land, nay a world, peopled only by man, his domesticated slaves, his animate commercial assets and his parasites? If this is not a pleasant outlook, then what must we do?

There are, as I have said, two ways of dealing with protection—legislation and public opinion. If we foster the latter the former will follow. But we want our legislation to be wise, and to achieve this our advocacy of the cause must also be wise. Newton, as bird protector, was sarcastic about many methods of its advocates. "The worst is that people will gush and be sentimental&hellip; the sentimentalists give far more trouble than anyone else." He also refers to the extravagant assertions, over-coloured statements of letter writers: "Our wild animals have no great reason to be grateful to their ordinary defenders in the newspapers." It is true. We need moderate, cool statement of fact, based on the study of life in field and laboratory, and the philosophical application, after careful experiment, of what we have learnt. Above all let us so order our behaviour towards the lower animals that it may not be asserted by the generations to come that the thoughtless, selfish men of the present era destroyed or allowed to be destroyed, for their own commercial ends or for their sporting pleasure, creatures which belonged to all time, the men of the future as well as the men of to-day.

In conclusion. Do these creatures belong either to us or to those who will follow? Have they not equal rights to a place in the sun? If so, we are justified only in