ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1077 



ing theory. On examining a series of over fifty 

 skins of various wild British birds and cap- 

 tivity-bred hybrids in tlie cinnamon phimage 

 phase, he found these, without exception, to 

 be females. Experimentation with cinnamon 

 canaries proved this character to be a sex-lim- 

 ited recessive, and it was found that a cinna- 

 mon female will never produce young of this 

 color, unless mated with a bird of cinnamon 

 parentage. As wild males of this color seem 

 never to occur, it is evident that such a race 

 would be very unlikely to increase. 



Among the wild canaries, therefore, there 

 was little likelihood that the color would gain 

 headway, because all of the young of a chance 

 cinnamon female would revert to the normal 

 color of the species, unless, as is very unlikely, 

 she happened to mate with a bird the mother 

 of which was a cinnamon. The green offspring 

 of the union of cinnamon and green would be 

 expected to produce young of each color, in the 

 Mendelian proportion of three greens to one 

 cinnamon, but the chance that brother and sis- 

 ter would be brought together at the beginning 

 of the next breeding season is remote. 



As soon as the cinnamon sports appeared 

 among captive birds, however, the race was 

 fixed. This was accomplished by mating the 

 male offspring of cinnamon females to others 

 of this color, when cinnamon males at once 

 appeared. L. S. C. 



DESTRUCTION OF POLAR BEARS. 

 By LoRENZ Hagenbeck. 



THE annual catch of polar bears is decreas- 

 ing every year, because these animals are 

 now being hunted about twice or three 

 times as much as they were thirty or forty years 

 ago. From Tromsoe, alone, sixty-one vessels 

 outfitted for Spitzbergen and East Greenland 

 in 1913; and besides other things they have 

 brought back seven live polar bears, 125 dead 

 ones and 200 reindeer. Counting the vessels 

 leaving from Hammerfest, Wadsoe and a few 

 less important towns also, about 100 vessels 

 left Europe in 1913 for the purpose of the cap- 

 ture of northern animals. Many of these ves- 

 sels are provided now with motor-boats, so as 

 to be able to penetrate further into the ice. 



In former years there were two to three 

 large tourist's vessels leaving the port of Trom- 

 soe for the purpose of hunting polar bears. 

 Usually they were hired by rich Englishmen, 

 Germans or Austrians, and brought back from 



forty to sixty polar bears shot within five or 

 six weeks' time. 



During the last few years the capture of 

 polar bears near the east coast of Greenland 

 has so greatly decreased that in 1913 only one 

 vessel with tourists was sent there. The other 

 vessels are lying idle, and it is not worth while 

 to equip them. 



Since 1890 a number of bear hunters from 

 Tromsoe and Hammerfest have established 

 hunting stations for the winter months on the 

 Spitzbergen Islands. They consist of wooden 

 houses, located at a distance of 100 or 200 kilo- 

 meters from each other, and there are either 

 two or three men at each station. These men 

 set traps, and also lay out poisoned meat or 

 seal's bacon. One must reckon, however, that 

 fully one-half of the animals killed through 

 poison in this way are lost, as the polar bear 

 has the habit of drawing near the water if it 

 feels sick. Thus it happens that the sick ani- 

 mals are drowned or frozen fast in the broken 

 ice. One company has thus been able to kill 

 and secure ninety polar bears during one year. 



As a check on this deadly commercial pur- 

 suit, during the past three years the Norwegian 

 Government has prohibited the killing of polar 

 bears by poison on the Spitzbergen Islands. 

 Unfortunately, however, as the land belongs to 

 nobody, the hunters generally do not care for 

 this, for there is no police authority on the spot 

 to control them. 



During the last three years there have been 

 comparatively few skins of polar bears at 

 Tromsoe and Hammerfest. although those cities 

 are the principal markets for them. As it is 

 known with certainty that the polar bear wan- 

 ders, it may be possible that it again exists at 

 the old capture places, so that a larger number 

 may be caught again, but it is very doubtful. 

 One thing is sure, however, and that is that the 

 polar bear is far less numerous now on the 

 east-coast of Greenland and Spitzbergen than 

 was the case between I860 and 1880. 



Electric Trail. — The electric cable stretching 

 across the space, fronting the Service Building, 

 is now a regular road-way for two squirrels 

 that have a nest in a big oak upon which the 

 cable hangs. Every night between four and 

 five the little animals skip gaily across this 

 perilous tight wire to their nest. Mr. Merkel 

 was greatly puzzled when he saw a squirrel 

 liass the window, annarentlv walking in space 

 until he moved in a position where the cable 

 could be seen. 



