Page 346 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

CHAPTER XXXIV
INTRODUCED SPECIES THAT HAVE BEEN BENEFICIAL
Man has made numerous experiments in the transplantation of wild species of mammals and birds from one country, or continent, to another. About one-half these efiforts have been beneficial, and the other half have resulted disastrously.
The transplantation of any wild-animal species is a leap in the dark. On general principles it is dangerous to meddle with the laws of Nature, and attempt to improve upon the code of the wilderness. Our best wisdom in such matters may easily prove to be short-sighted folly. The trouble lies in the fact that concerning transplantation it is impossible
jor us to know beforehand all the conditions that will affect it, or that it will effect, and how it will work out. In its own home a species may seem not onlyharmless,butactuallybeneficialtoman. Wedonotknow,andwe can not know, all the influences that keep it in check, and that mould its character. Wedonotknow,andwecannotknowwithoutatrial,how new environment will affect it, and what new traits of character it will developunderradicallydifferentconditions. ThegentledoveofEurope may become the tyrant dove of Cathay. The Repressed Rabbit of the Old World becomes in Australia the Uncontrollable Rabbit, a devastator and a pest of pests.
No wild species should be transplanted and set free in a wild state to stock new regions without consulting men of wisdom, and following their advice. ItisnowagainstthelawsoftheUnitedStatestointroduceand acclimatize in a wild state, anywhere in the United States, any wild-bird species without the approval of the Department of Agriculture. The lawisawiseone. Furthermore,thesameprincipleshouldapplytobirds that it is proposed to transplant from one portion of the United States into another, especially when the two are widely separated.
On this point, I once learned a valuable lesson, which may well point mypresentmoral. Incidentally,also,itwasanarrowescapeforme!
A gentlemen of my acquaintance, who admires the European magpie, and is well aware of its acceptable residence in various countries in Eu- rope, once requested my cooperation in securing and acclimatizing at hiscountryestateanumberofbirdsofthatspecies. Asindutybound, I laid the matter before our Department of Agriculture, and asked for an opinion. The Department replied, in efifect, "Why import a foreign magpie when we have in the West a species of our own quite as hand- some, and which could more easily be transplanted?"
Thepointseemedwelltaken. Now,IhadseenmuchoftheAmerican