THE WILD FAUNA OF THE EMPIRE 



EDITORIAL NOTE. 



In issuing the fourth volume of the Journal of the Society, we are 

 glad to be able to announce one satisfactory result of the efforts 

 we have made for the preservation of the fauna in Africa. It will 

 be within the recollection of our members that we have approached 

 successive Secretaries of State for the Colonies with a view to 

 securing an adequate stall' for Game Preservation in British East 

 Africa, which has hitherto been limited to a single officer and an 

 expenditure of i:30U per annum. We are pleased to be able to 

 announce that these representations have at length received atten- 

 tion, and that a sum of i2,30U has been included m the estimates 

 for this Protectorate, where the need for it is perhaps greater than 

 in any other. 



The progress of the Protectorate may be measured by the 

 increase of railway net receipts from £2,639 in 19U4-o to £76,150 

 in 1906-7. These figures indicate phenomenal extensions of 

 ' white ' development, and, if we are correctly informed, pro- 

 tection of the game is rendered correspondingly urgent. 



It is a pleasure to many members of the Society to know that 

 Lieut. -Col. J. PI. Patterson, D.S.O., has accepted the appoint- 

 ment of Chief of this Department. Colonel Patterson, who is 

 well known to many of our members, is, as we believe, admirably 

 equipped for this post by his knowledge of the territory, as well as 

 by his sympathy with animal life, energy, and tact. 



We have repeatedly pointed out the need of a limit of 25 lbs. 

 on the elephants' tusks permitted to be exported from British Pro- 

 tectorates. This limit, or a higher one, has been generally im- 

 posed, but was strongly resisted in Uganda, where it is asserted 

 that the natives suffer from the depredations of elephants in their 

 shamhas. This, on the surface, seems reasonable, but we shall 

 continue to point out that if cow and immature elephants are killed 

 to protect the plantations, there is no reason to add the further 

 inducement of a high profit on the sale of small ivory. 



For the convenience of those who have not the important Blue 

 Book on the Preservation of Wild Animals in Africa, issued in 

 November 1906, we have included in this number some further 

 extracts from it. For present purposes we need only refer to 

 No. 232, relating to the trade in horns and skins in Somaliland 



