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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 efforts 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 for
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 only harmless, but actually beneficial to man. We do not
know, and _we can not know_, all the influences that keep it in check,
and that mould its character. We do not know, and we can not know
without a trial, how new environment will affect it, and what new traits
of character it will develop under radically different conditions. The
gentle dove of Europe 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. It is now against the laws of the United States to introduce and
acclimatize in a wild state, anywhere in the United States, any
wild-bird species without the approval of the Department of Agriculture.
The law is a wise one. Furthermore, the same principle should apply to
birds 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 my
present moral. Incidentally, also, it was a narrow escape for me!

A gentlemen of my acquaintance, who admires the European magpie, and is
well aware of its acceptable residence in various countries in Europe,
once requested my cooperation in securing and acclimatizing at his
country estate a number of birds of that species. As in duty bound, I
laid the matter before our Department of Agriculture, and asked for an
opinion. The Departme