^. Sport and Nature in Germany 



Asia and other coLintrics. though these arc quite harmless 

 to man. Ikit in our Fatherland a completely organised 

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

 matter. 



I should like also to advocate strongh" the legal pro- 

 hibition of the use of |)ole-traps, to which all our owls 

 and birds of prey fall \ictims. 



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 Californian grizzly 

 bear [Uj'sus horribilis californicus), the San Joaquin 

 Valley elk, or wapiti {Cerviis iiannodes). Stone's reindeer 

 [Rangifer sionci), the prongbuck or pronghorn {Antilocapra 

 aiiiericaua), the Pallas cormorant {^Phalacrocorax pcrspil- 

 licatus), the Labrador duck {Caniptolainms labradorius), 

 the ivory woodpecker {Campephilus principalis), the scotar 

 i^Aix spoiisa), several other species of birds, and finally 

 the American woodcock. This last falls a victim chiefly 

 to professional 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 Torties of the past century my father received a letter 



187 



