INTRODUCTION 



that purpose while it still can be accomplished 

 with a minimum of trouble and expense. Ten 

 or fifteen years hence the difficulties and cost 

 will be many times greater and it will be too 

 late to save many of the larger and rarer 

 species of birds and animals, as far as the 

 Canal Zone and the more accessible parts of 

 the Republic are concerned. 



The difficulties in the way of checking this 

 destruction are no doubt very great, but re- 

 sults are not usually accomplished by majori- 

 ties, but by minorities. Were the Isthmus 

 to have an active and wisely conducted 

 natural history society that would work for 

 the preservation of the native birds and 

 animals, even if its numbers were few at 

 first, it might after a time become a power 

 capable of influencing public opinion and of 

 producing important results. 



In the wilder and more inaccessible regions 

 of Panama, game laws are not to be thought 

 of as yet; but, on the other hand, there are 

 parts of the Republic where protection for 

 some of the birds and animals is already 

 badly needed, and this area will increase as 

 time goes on. Until recently, the Republic 

 had no game laws whatever. Anyorre has 

 been at liberty to kill to the extent that he 

 could, anywhere and at any season, regard- 

 less of whether the species was becoming ex- 

 terminated, or whether it was the breeding 

 season when killing the adults means also the 

 starvation of the young and the prevention of 

 reproduction. This matter does not con- 

 cern alone the citizens of the Republic of 

 Panama but those of the Canal Zone also, 



