Page 14 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

viii FOREWORD
tion. Vulgar advertisements hide the landscape, and in all that disfigures the wonderftd heritage of the beauty of Nature to-day, we Americans are in the lead.
Fortunately the tide of destruction is ebbing, and the tide of con- servation is coming in. Americans are practical. Like all other northern peoples, they love money and will sacrifice much for it, but they are
' also full of idealism, as well as of moral and spiritual energy. The in- fluence of the splendid body of Americans and Canadians who have turned their best forces of mind and language into literature and into political power for the conservation movement, is becoming stronger every day. Yet we are far from the point where the momentum of conservation is strong enough to arrest and roll back the tide of destruc- tion; and this is especially true with regard to our fast vanishing animal life.
The facts and figures set forth in this volume will astonish all those lovers of Nature and friends of the animal world who are living in a false or imaginary sense of security. The logic of these facts is inexorable. As regards our birds and mammals, the failures of supposed protection in America—under a system of free shooting—are so glaring that we are confident this exposure will lead to sweeping reforms. The author of this work is no amateur in the field of • wild-life protection. His ideas concerning methods of reform are drawn from long and successful ex- perience. The states which are still behind in this movement may well give serious heed to his summons, and pass the new laws that are so urgently demanded to save the vanishing remnant.
The New York Zoological Society, which is cooperating with many other organizations in this great movement, sends forth this work in the belief that there is no one who is more ardently devoted to the great cause or rendering more effective service in it than William T. Hornaday. We believe that this is a great book, destined to exert a world-wide influence, to be translated into other languages, and to arouse the de- fenders and lovers of our vanishing animal life before it is too late.
Henry Fairfield Osborn,
10 December, 1912. President of the New York Zoological Society