-^ The Preservation of African Game 



Already there is in existence in Germany a society 

 for the preservation of the l)eauties ot nature. The term 

 should l;)e held to include not merely scenery, but also 

 the animal life and plant life thereto belonging. 



The sportsman sits as ruler over the entire animal 

 kingdom ; he gives out its laws, and has powers of life 

 and death. Whatever he may decide is accepted without 

 question. 



If German V can boast of an old and honoured 

 institution, in its confraternity of German sportsmen, 

 such as you will hardly find in any other country, many 

 Germans — I say it clearly and trankly — are a great deal 

 too prone to destroy a number of beautiful species of 

 the animal fauna, considering themselves warranted in 

 exterminating, by means of traps and even of poison, 

 as well as by powder and shot, all those vermin, as 

 they are designated, which prey upon our favourite forms 

 of game. This interferes with the natural order of 

 things, and degeneration of the species results inevitably. 



It is not onlv the man with the orun who arroL>ates to 

 himself this right ; the angler is of the same way of 

 thinking, and to be logical we should suffer bee-keepers 

 to kill oft' all our swallows and stand by while the vine- 

 grower spreads destruction among thrushes and other 

 singing-birds. There is scarcely any living creature 

 against which some case might not be made out for 

 damage done to some human industry. 



In the days when otters and herons and kingfishers 

 and any number of other animals and birds were left free 

 to prey upon the fish in German seas and lakes and 



