Lanterna Rally

Author: James Ritchie

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-06-27

Total Pages: 592

ISBN-13: 9781330244401

Excerpt from The Influence of Man on Animal Life in Scotland: A Study in Faunal Evolution The animal life or fauna of a country is no fixed unit of occupation, established and unchanging, but, endowed with the plasticity of life, it carries in itself the imprints of many influences which have played upon it throughout the ages. The lectures contained in the following pages were planned to unravel one important set of such influences - those which radiate from the acts of Man - so that it might be possible to trace the different ways in which Man's power has worked and is working, and to realize to what degree a fauna of to-day owes its character and composition to his interference. With this end in view it was necessary to select a particular fauna of manageable compass, where the inquisition into Man's influence could be pushed to the furthest limits; and several facts pointed to the fauna of Scotland as best suited for the purpose. Nevertheless, I have not hesitated to refer to examples of Man's influence in other countries, wherever particular types have been strikingly illustrated, or where influences are seen at work which help to explain effects of causes long lost to sight in Scotland, or where, as in the case of counter-pests, modern science has created new kinds of interference which sooner or later are likely to be adopted in this country. A result of this enquiry has been to emphasize the instability and changefulness of a fauna, and a word may be said as to the general place of Man's influence in the sum of change. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.