-> Sport and Nature in Germany 



Asia and other countries, though these are quite harmless 

 to man. But in our Fatherland a completely organised 

 " poison business " has grown up, which is a very serious 

 matter. 



I should like also to advocate strongly the legal pro- 

 hibition of the use of pole-traps, to which all our owls 

 and birds of prey fall victims. 



If we go on as we are going, the time cannot be far 

 distant when we shall have to strike out of the list of 

 the living several interesting members of our native 

 fauna. In North America, in recent times, the following 

 species, amongst others, have some of them become 

 extinct, others extremely scarce : the California!! grizzly 

 bear (Ursns horribilis californicus}, the San Joaquin 

 Valley elk, or wapiti (Cervus nannodes], Stone's reindeer 

 (Rangifer stonct], the prongbuck or pronghorn (Antilocapra 

 auiei'icana\ the Pallas cormorant (Phalacrocorax pcrspil- 

 Hcalus], the Labrador duck (Camptolaiimis labradorins\ 

 the ivory woodpecker (Campephilus principalis], the scotar 

 (Ai.v sponsd), several other species of birds, and finally 

 the American woodcock. This last falls a victim chiefly 

 to protessional hunters, who are accustomed to kill it by 

 hundreds in its winter quarters. 



" This list could perhaps be extended," Mr. R. 

 Rathbun, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute 

 (whose kindness I have to thank for this information), 

 adds at the end of his letter. 



His communications have also been of special interest 

 to me because they awoke in me old recollections. In 

 the 'forties of the past century my father received a letter 



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