orned Owl, Screech
Owl, Butcher Bird_ or _Great Northern Shrike_. The only circumstance
that saves these birds from instant condemnation is the delightful
amount of rats, mice, moles, gophers and noxious insects that they
annually consume. In view of the awful destructiveness of the accursed
bubonic-plague-carrying rat, we are impelled to think long before
placing in our killing list even the great horned owl, who really does
levy a heavy tax on our upland game birds. As to the butcher bird, we
feel that we ought to kill him, but in view of his record on wild mice
and rats, we hesitate, and finally decline.

[Illustration: SHARP-SHINNED HAWK
A Species to be Destroyed]

SNAKES.--Mr. Thomas M. Upp, a close and long observer of wild things
wishes it distinctly understood that while the common black-snakes and
racers are practically harmless to birds, the _Pilot Black-Snake_,
--long, thick and truculent,--is a great scourge to nesting birds. It
seems to be deserving of death. Mr. Upp speaks from personal knowledge,
and his condemnation of the species referred to is quite sweeping. At
the same time Mr. Raymond L. Ditmars points out the fact that this
serpent feeds during 6 months of the year on mice, and in doing so
renders good service. In the South it is called the "Mouse Snake."

[Illustration: THE CAT THAT KILLED 58 BIRDS IN ONE YEAR
From Mr. Forbush's Book
Photo by A.C. Dyke]

* * * * *

CHAPTER IX

THE DESTRUCTION OF WILD LIFE BY DISEASES

Every cause that has the effect of reducing the total of wild-life
population is now a matter of importance to mankind. The violent and
universal disturbance of the balance of Nature that already has taken
place throughout the temperate and frigid zone offers not only food for
thought, but it calls for vigorous action.

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
gaz