SEPTEMBER 179 



dozen individuals survive of the mighty herds that 

 Gordon Gumming encountered in the 'forties. It will 

 be a lasting disgrace if the giraffe is allowed to perish 

 in like manner, but this is imminent at least south of 

 the Zambesi. The mountain zebra may be found now 

 only in the most remote mountain ranges ; while the 

 bontebok, the blesbok, and the black wildbeest, all of 

 which Gordon Gumming found in countless hordes fifty 

 years ago in what is now the Orange Free State, must 

 be reckoned at this day at a few scores each. They 

 have been ruthlessly massacred for their skins. Of the 

 queerly-shaped bontebok, travellers used to stand amazed 

 at the prodigious multitude within a relatively small 

 strip of country ; now, none are left but one small herd, 

 preserved near Cape Agulhas by two Dutch families 

 named Van Breda and Van der Byl. 



The Society for the Protection of Birds appeal to 

 similar sympathies to those which the Company above 

 referred to rely on to bring them shareholders. In a 

 recent leaflet this excellent Society deals with that 

 fashion in ladies' bonnets which makes the wearing of 

 bird-of-Paradise plumes indispensable. These are com- 

 monly mixed with so-called ' ospreys,' which are really 

 the bridal dress of two species of white heron. The 

 iniquity of the traffic in ' ospreys ' has been shown to 

 rest on the fact that these coveted plumes are only dis- 

 played at the breeding season ; indeed, they are not 

 fully developed on the parent birds till the young ones 

 are hatched. Hence the nesting colonies have to be 

 attacked at the very season when humanity should 



