^ sport and Nature in Germany 



Brought up In the school of German sportsmanship, 

 I had hiter on to change completely my view as to our 

 distinction between " noxious animals " and " beasts of 

 prey." The African wilderness swarms with beasts of prey, 

 and yet also swarms with useful wild animals. The waters 

 oi Africa teem with the Jish destroyers, and also teem 

 with Jish. We should not therefore act so short-sightedly 

 and pedantically. We should not be so eager to hunt 

 down the last fox, the last pine-marten. The nesting- 

 places of herons and cormorants are becoming ever fewer ; 

 the places where the handsome black tree storks build 

 in our German Fatherland can almost be counted on 

 the fingers of one hand ; and the same is nearly true of 

 the nesting-places of our rarer birds of prey. 



The killing of a wild cat has already become an event ; 

 it is the same with the eaMe-owl. 



Out of the mass of literature of recent date bearing 

 on the subject, I take a single book. In a very readable 

 essay, Der Uhii in Bdhmen, Kurt Loos shows that only 

 a few years ago this interesting and beautiful large owl 

 {Bubo niaximus) w^as to be found making its home to 

 the extent of some fifty pairs in thirty-five districts of 

 Bohemia ; now only eighteen pairs are living there, in 

 ten districts. The author demands protection for the 

 surviving pairs of owls, as natural objects that should be 

 preserved, and he makes out a strong case for his proposal. 

 Rontgen-ray photographs are among the illustrations of 

 this interesting work, and they suggest that in times when 

 one can do one's work with such excellent appliances, 

 there is all the more reason for avoiding the thoughtless 



189 



