There are vast sections in the populous centres of western civilization where the destruction of species, even to the point of extermination, is fairly inevitable.  It is the way of Christian man to destroy all wild life that comes within the sphere of influence of his iron heel.  With the exception of the big game, this destruction is largely a temperamental result, peculiar to the highest civilization.  In India where the same fields have been plowed for wheat and dahl and raggi for at least 2,000 years, the Indian antelope, or “black buck,” the saras crane and the adjutant stalk through the crops, and the nilgai and gazelle inhabit the eroded ravines in an agricultural land that averages 1,200 people to the square mile!

We have seen that even in farming country, where mud villages are as thick as farm houses in Nebraska, wild animals and even hoofed game can live and hold their own through hundreds of years of close association with man.  The explanation is that the Hindus regard wild animals as creatures entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and they are not anxious to shoot every wild animal that shows its head.  In the United States, nearly every game-inhabited community is animated by a feeling that every wild animal must necessarily be killed as soon as seen; and this sentiment often leads to disgraceful things.  For instance, in some parts of New England a deer straying into a town is at once beset by the hue and cry, and it is chased and assaulted until it is dead, by violent and disgraceful means.  New York State, however, seems to have outgrown that spirit.  During the past ten years, at least a dozen deer in distress have been rescued from the Hudson River, or in inland towns, or in barnyards in the suburbs of Yonkers and New York, and carefully cared for until “the zoo people” could be communicated with.  Last winter about 13 exhausted grebes and one loon were picked up, cared for and finally shipped with tender care to the Zoological Park.  One distressed dovekie was picked up, but failed to survive.

The sentiment for the conservation of wild life has changed the mental attitude of very many people.  The old Chinese-Malay spirit which cries “Kill!  Kill!” and at once runs amuck among suddenly discovered wild animals, is slowly being replaced by a more humane and intelligent sentiment.  This is one of the hopeful and encouraging signs of the times.

The destruction of wild animals by natural causes is an interesting subject, even though painful.  We need to know how much destruction is wrought by influences wholly beyond the control of man, and a few cases must be cited.