Birds

EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN

引入大不列颠的外来鸟类

P40

There are countries with a less fertile soil and a worse climate than ours, yet richer in bird life. Nevertheless, England is not poor; the species are not few in number, and some are extremely abundant. Unfortunately many of the finer kinds have been too much sought after; persecuted first for their beauty, then for their rarity, until now we are threatened with their total destruction.

相比我国，有些土壤更贫瘠，气候更恶劣的国家鸟类却丰富得多。事实上，英国的鸟类并不贫乏，相反，数量众多，有些种类甚至不计其数。可惜，由于它们漂亮的外形和少量的存在，许多珍稀的鸟类都遭到了人类的大量捕杀，以至现在达到了濒临灭绝的地步。

As these kinds become unobtainable, those which stand next in the order of beauty and rarity are persecuted in their turn; and in a country as densely populated as ours, where birds can not hide themselves from human eyes, such persecution must eventually cause their extinction. Meanwhile the bird population does not decrease.

这些珍稀鸟类绝迹后，其他在外形和罕见程度上仅次于它们的鸟类就成了人们捕杀的下一个对象。而在我国这样人口密稠的国家，所有鸟类的存在都逃脱不了人类的眼睛，人类对鸟类的杀害最终必将导

致鸟类的灭绝。但与此同时，鸟类的数量并未下降。

Every place in nature, like every property in Chancery, has more than one claimant to it sometimes the claimants are many and so long as the dispute lasts all live out of the estate. For there are always two or more species subsisting on the same kind of food, possessing similar habits, and frequenting the same localities. It is consequently impossible for man to exterminate any one species without indirectly benefiting some other species, which attracts him in a less degree, or not at all.

自然界的各个地方，就像官邸的每处房产，需求者众多，有时需求者过多以至争议停息之前，任一位需求者都无法入住庄园。自然界里，总有两种或更多的鸟类依靠同种食物生存，拥有相似的生活习性，在同一个地方频繁活动，因此人们在消灭某种鸟类的同时，不可避免地会间接使其他鸟类受益。这种结果并不是人们所乐见的。

This is unfortunate, for as the bright kinds, or those we esteem most, diminish in numbers the less interesting kinds multiply, and we lose much of the pleasure which bird life is fitted to give us. When we visit woods, or other places to which birds chiefly resort, in districts uninhabited by man, or where he pays little or no attention to the feathered creatures, the variety of the bird life encountered affords a new and peculiar delight. There is a constant succession of new forms and new voices; in a single

day as many species may be met with as one would find in England by searching diligently for a whole year.

在那些色彩明亮，深受人们喜爱的鸟类减少的同时，为人们不喜欢的鸟类逐渐增多，人们就失去了鸟类带来的乐趣。无论走入森林，还是其他鸟类栖居的主要地方，诸如无人出没的区域，抑或鸟类不受到人们特别关注的地方，都能不断发现鸟类新的面孔和声音，为人们带来一种新鲜的特别的愉悦心情。在这些地方，一天之内就能见到在英国需要一年时间才能发现的许多鸟类。

And yet this may happen in a district possessing no more species than England boasts; and the actual number of individuals may be even less than with us. In sparrows, for instance, of the one common species, we are exceedingly rich; but in bird life generally, in variety of birds, especially in those of graceful forms and beautiful plumage, we have been growing poorer for the last fifty years, and have now come to so low a state that it becomes us to inquire whether it is not in our power to better ourselves.

在鸟类数量与英国相当或鸟类较少的地方，这种情况也会发生。例如，最常见的麻雀，在我国数量极为丰富。然而，所有鸟类当中，那些外形艳丽，羽色光鲜的鸟类在过去的半个世纪，数量不断下降，目前甚至达到了极低的数目，以至需要人们反思是否有能力改善现