526 GAME AND BIRD PR( ITF.CTION. 



Orange Free State. — -According to Game Ordinance, 1914. 

 all game birds are protected by a close season from ist August 

 to 31st Alarch. This includes, besides the francolin and guinea- 

 fowls, the dikkop. waterfowl, plovers, and lapwing snipe. The 

 taking of the young and eggs is also prohibited. 



Locust birds are specially protected. Mr. C. McG. John- 

 ston, the Secretary of the Orange Free State Agricultural 

 Society, informs me that the Provincial Council have now com- 

 pletely protected the whole of the bustard and plover families in 

 the Free State area, and that in consequence korhaan are becom- 

 ing plentiful again in some of the districts. It is also thought 

 that the protection of these birds is already mitigating the 

 termite pest. 



The South African Ornithologists' Union, which was 

 founded in 1904, and whereof I am Hon. Secretary, has a Bird 

 Protection and Migration Sub-Committee, but hitherto little 

 has been done owing to the unsettled state of the country, politi- 

 cally and otherwise. But. as I stated in a pamphlet on the econo- 

 mic relations to man of the variotis South African birds of prey, 

 little can be done by Legislature while the present ignorance on 

 matters of natural history prevails in South Africa. What is 

 the use of prohibiting the killing of certain birds, when the vast 

 majority of the inhabitants do not know these partictilar birds 

 from a crow or "vink"'-: We must educate them first, and to 

 this end I wrote, in collaboration with Mr. R. IT. Ivy, my "Sketches 

 of South African Bird Life," of which the second edition is now 

 in the press. This is proftisely illustrated by means of photo- 

 grajihs. The South African Ornithologists' Union was also instru- 

 mental some years ago in bringing about the issue by the Trans- 

 vaal Education Department of well-coloured wall pictures of 

 some of the more useful birds and migratory species. These are 

 the lines upon which we have to develop, and the rising genera- 

 tion must be educated up to the principles which I have tried 

 to expound. 



The late Dr. Gunning. Mr. Austin Roberts, and Dr. Warren 

 have each written popular articles upon the economics of South 

 African birds in the Transvaal and South Afriean Agricultural 

 Journals, and more of such papers are wanted. 



Game and Bird Protection in America. 



Now let us for a moment glance at what is being done in 

 some other countries in the matter of game and bird protection. 



In America the game reserves, bird preservations, fisheries, 

 etc., are under a Sub-Department of the L^nited States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, the '' Bureau of Biological Survey," w4iose 

 chief was Dr. C. Hart Merriam. Dr. H. \\\ Henshaw is now 

 in charge, under whom Dr. T. S. Palmer is the assistant in 

 charge of game preservation. There is a large stafif of assistant 

 biologists, who issue most interesting reports from time to 

 time, such as an annual report on the game protection, pam- 

 phlets bearing upon " National Reservations for the Protection 



