-*> The Preservation of African (iamc 



Already there is in existence in Germany a society 

 for the preservation of the beauties of nature. The term 

 should he held to include not merely scenery, but also 

 the animal lite and plant life thereto belonging. 



The sportsman sits as ruler over the entire animal 

 kingdom ; he gives out its laws, and has powers of life 

 and death. \\ hatever he may decide is accepted without 

 question. 



It Germany can boast ot an old and honoured 

 institution, in its confraternity of German sportsmen, 

 such as you will hardly tind in any other country, many 

 Germans I say it clearly and frankly are a great deal 

 too prone to destroy a number of beautiful species of 

 the animal fauna, considering themselves warranted in 

 exterminating, by means of traps and even of poison, 

 as well as by powder and shot, all those vermin, as 

 they are designated, which prey upon our favourite torms 

 of game. This interferes with the natural order ot 

 things, and degeneration of the species results inevitably. 



It is not only the man with the gun who arrogates to 

 himself this right ; the angler is of the same way of 

 thinking, and to be logical we should suffer bee-keepers 

 to kill off all our swallows and stand by while the vine- 

 grower spreads destruction among thrushes and other 

 singing-birds. There is scarcely any living creature 

 against which some case might not be made out tor 

 damage done to some human industry. 



In the days when otters and herons and kingfishers 

 and any number of other animals and birds were left free 

 to prey upon the fish in German seas and lakes and 



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