APPROACHING EXTINCTION OF INTERESTING ANIMALS.
rTo !RR EDITOR OF THE "srzarrroa...1 Sin,---The recent annorthicement that the area of the Zoo- I6gical Gardens in Regent's Park is to be somewhat extended is a gratifying one. But it would be a further, source of satisfaction to many.persons if the Zoological-Society, or some other scientific body, could promote any measures calculated to delay the too probable early extinction throughout the world of-some of the chief attractions hitherto of such exhibi- tions. Them is a real danger that in a generation or two those fine beasts, the lion, the giraffe, the hippopotamus, and the rhinoceros, will only be known by their pictures and a few stuffed specimens - in museums. The progress of civilisa- tion, the achievements of sportsmen, and the activity of traders in skins are collectii;ely so- rapidly' reducing in their native regions the above and other creatures, that it is important to coUsider whether any prac- ticable steps can be taken to 'protect them from all such slaughter as may not be absolutely. necessary for the lives and safety of the populations in the vicinity of their native haunts. A Portuguese company in East Africa now. offers £20 for each lion shot. The Chief Justice of Cape Colony stated the other day that a number of interesting animals, including the giraffe and the mountain zebra, are already nearly extinct in that Colony. As to elephants and tigers, they may perhaps survive for a while the other animals which I have mentioned above, though many thousand elephants are annually killed for their ivory. A chief proportion of the animal's most in danger of early • extinction are to be found in the Colonies belonging to Britain, Germany, France, Portugal, and Belgium. If, there- fore, the respective Governments of those countries could be infirienced to invite the- authorities in their own Colonies to devise some measures for the reasonable preservation of the animals in question, a very desirable step would be taken. Aird there is no time to be lost. There would be a special appropriateness if the Zoological Society would initiate early efforts in this direction.—I am, Sir, Ste.,
WILLIAM TALLACK. Ckipion Common, N.E.
[Mr. Tallack's suggestion is an interesting one, but he forgets that in Africa at least the problem is complicated by the fact, or apparent fact, that as long as the big game is encouraged so is the tsetse-fly, and that the tsetse-fly is held responsible for the two most terrible of scourges to man
and beast,—sleeping sickness • and, horse Erickness. pre- servation of big game can be - proved to prevent- the stamping out of sleeping sickness, then the notion of keeping sanctuaries in Africa must be at once abandoned. Whether the connexion between big' game preservation, tsetse-fly, and sleeping Sickness has been proved we cannot profess to judge. The matter is still sub judice. — ED. $pectutor.]
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