-^ Sport and Nature in Germany 



estate ; the primeval village of badgers is in ruins, and 

 irreverent hands have cut down the '' King's Oak." But 

 the old man, now that his time of service has expired, 

 never sets foot on the estate, though he is passing the 

 eveninor of his life in the neighbourhood. 



That was a man who had innate in him a just and 

 reverent feeling for the preservation of the beauties and 

 glories handed down to us from the far past, and who 

 loved, and, so far as it was possible, guarded these 

 wonders of nature. 



Let us once for all throw overboard the sharp 

 distinction between ''noxious" and "useful" animals, 

 and within certain limits let us protect the whole world 

 of animal and plant life. This would be the noblest 

 form of game preservation, in the widest sense of the 

 word. 



I venture to dwell upon these ideas here, knowing 

 that they are shared by a large number of men and 

 women. Amongst our German game-preserving associa- 

 tions we have societies that have rendered grreat services 

 to the protection of our native wild animals. An extension 

 of these useful efforts to the protection of all our native 

 fauna and flora in general is most certainly called for by 

 the greatly altered conditions of our time. We are 

 gradually coming to a period when every individual wild 

 animal will be registered by specialists and indicated 

 in a list ! And we are also gradually approaching in 

 our sporting estates the ideal of extensive, well-kept 

 gardens, in which no touch of wild nature will any longer 

 be left. 



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