NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



by acting in concert. Several boys will advance 

 in crescent form, each armed with a knob stick, 

 and accompanied by dogs of nondescript breeds. 

 When the bird is flushed the boys throw their sticks 

 simultaneously. The quarry, in dodging some of the 

 sticks, is frequently knocked down by one of the 

 others. I have often seen Kafir boys make large bags 

 of quails and partridges in this manner. 



To put a check on this wholesale destruction of 

 birds by native boys is a thorny problem. To await 

 the time when the native is sufficiently educated and 

 mentally evolved to be amenable to reason and persua- 

 sion in this matter is impossible. Ere that time 

 arrives our native birds, or great numbers of them, 

 will be extinct. 



The only practical way to check their practices 

 would seem to be by prohibiting the robbing of nests 

 and the capture and killing of wild birds under very 

 severe penalties, and a rigorous enforcement of the 

 law. It is useless making laws and not providing 

 the necessary machinery to punish those who violate 

 them. 



At present, in many districts of the Union of 

 South Africa, the majority of species of birds are 

 protected by law, but snaring, killing, and robbing- 

 nests go on as of old, because it is nobody's special 

 business to enforce the law. The majority of people, 

 both white and coloured, are even unaware of the 

 existence of bird protection laws. 



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