--> Introduction 



In spite of game regulations and the creation of 

 game-reserves (to which admission can generally be 

 obtained through the exercise of special influence, some- 

 times rightly exercised in the cause of science), one has 

 only to look through the columns of "Society" infor- 

 mation in the London weekly and daily press to realise 

 that this work of wanton destruction of the big game 

 of tropical Africa is still going on at a considerable rate. 

 It seems to be still the accepted panacea in British or 

 Continental society that a young or a middle-aged man, 

 who has been crossed in love, or has figured in the 

 Divorce Court, or in some way requires to faire peau 

 neuve, must go out to Africa and kill big game. Make 

 a note of the names mentioned if you will, and inquire 

 twelve months afterwards what has become of the 

 creatures thus destroyed. Many, of the trophies, after 

 the carriers of the expedition had feasted on the flesh 

 of the slain, were ultimately abandoned on the line of 

 march as being too heavy to carry. Even those that 

 reached the home of the sportsman were ultimately 

 relegated to obscurity, and did not add to our zoological 

 information. In short, there is very little set-off in 

 gain to the world's knowledge for the destruction of 

 one of Africa's most valuable assets its marvellous 

 Mammalian fauna. A Schillings, a Lord Delamere, a 

 Major Powell Cotton, a Delme Radcliffe, a Sydney 

 Hinde, or a Carlos d'Erlanger may kill a relatively 

 large number of beasts and birds in their sporting ad- 

 ventures ; but if one may put it thus every shot tells. 

 All the persons named to say nothing of Mr. E. N. 



xv 



