In Wildest Africa 



t/ic whole, very much diminishing tJie number of animals. 

 A striking proof that the destruction of wild life is the 

 work of the Europeans themselves, and of the native 

 hunters carrying firearms under their authority, is afforded 

 by the fate of the North American buffalo, the whales, 

 walruses, and seals of the frozen seas, and finally by that 

 of the elephant in certain districts and of the South African 

 fauna taken as a whole. 



We should not therefore act so rigorously in the 

 proscription of our so-called " predatory " animals. Yet, 

 for instance, my near neighbour, Freiherr H. Geyer von 

 Schweppenberg, has lately shown that our pretty water-hen 

 (Gal I inn la cJiloropus, L.) can do a great deal of damage 

 to grass and corn. 



In South Africa what are called "poisoning clubs" 

 have been organised, which aim at the extermination of 

 " noxious animals " by poison. The use of poison ought 

 to be entirely forbidden by legal enactments, with the 

 exception, perhaps, of its administration for scientific 

 purposes. The strychnine canister the use ot which 

 ought only to be allowed, and that in exceptional cases, 

 to those who are making scientific collections is now 

 making its appearance everywhere all over the world. 

 I have had news from the most distant countries of its 

 employment, unhappily with far too great success. 1 It is 

 already some time since the last Lainmergeier of the 

 German hill districts fell a victim to it. It is thinning to 

 a frightful extent the numbers of the bears in Kastern 



1 Professor Haberer lately found strychnine in use in various ways in 

 many places in Eastern Asia. 



186 



