A GAME WARDEN AMONG HIS CHARGES . By Captain Pitman
In our Natural History Museum, which is_ iu the world; are a great many specimens provide by Captain Pitman, who .has exhibited a genius for research into the ways of wild animals both in India and in East Africa. He' has now collected 'into a book .4 ' Game 'Warden Among His Charges- (Nisbet, life.) his later experiences as game warden in Uganda, that paradise for the greater mammals. The . volume is a hotch-potch personal experience and sum- marized natural history ;_ and lacks perhaps ..Constructive skill ; but is always undeniably interesting, . and in parts ' original. There are many rather grisly, stories, especially about the crocodiles,' whose carnivorous skill 'Seems to have a certain fascination for, the Mither. But in general he is inclined to whitewash the character of animals generally • regarded as a cause of terror, -especially to rnmoceros and gorilla. He has stood, apparently without tremor, within a l'ew yards of the rhinoceros and writes'of the gorilla : " I have been considerably impressed by the remarkable benevolence of expression of the various live .gorillas—even males—I, have encountered " ! Captain Pitman has, of course, shot much big game ; but, his passion is for preservation never- theless ; and the motive of the volume is to give record of vanishing mammals and so far:aS may be to prevent their extinction. lie is a student first and foremost of habit and character.; and it is extraordinary hoi'vintioli 'better 'he writes whien -he-describes his own experiences:--The- chapter on-the: " Murchison Falls," perhaps the most glorious natural park for big game in the world, makes a charming narrative, finishing
with a reference to the anchorage at Fajao " alive with bathing elephant, basking hippopotami, and masses of crocodile . . . lying piled up across each other in great heaps." The illustra- tions, mostly photographic, are numerous and good.
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