478 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 
Section D.—ZOOLOGY. 
PRESIDENT OF THE SecTION.—P. CuaumMers Mircueu, D.Sc., F.R.S. 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5. 
The President delivered the following Address :— 
Zoological Gardens and the Preservation of Fauna. 
In thinking over possible subjects for this Presidential Address, I was strongly 
tempted to enter on a discussion of the logical methods and concepts that we 
employ in Zoology. The temptation was specially strong to a Scot speaking in 
Scotland, that he should devote the hour when the prestige of the presidential 
chair secured him attention, to putting his audience right on logic and meta- 
physics. But I reflected that Zoology is doing very well, however its logic be 
wavering, and that as all lines subtend an equal angle at infinity, it would be of 
small moment if I were to postpone my remarks on metaphysics. And so I am to 
essay a more modest but a more urgent theme, and ask you to consider the danger 
that threatens the surviving land-fauna of this globe. A well-known example 
may serve to remind you how swift is the course of destruction. In 1867, when 
the British Association last met at Dundee, there were still millions of bison 
roaming over the prairies and forests of North America. In that year the 
building of the Union Pacific, the first great trans-continental railway, cut the 
herd in two. The Southern division, consisting itself of several million indi- 
viduals, was wiped out between 1871 and 1874, and the practical destruction of 
the Northern herd was completed between 1880 and 1884. At present there are 
only two herds of wild bison in existence. In the Yellowstone Park only about 
twenty individuals remained in 1911, the greater part of the herd having been 
killed by poachers. A larger number, over three hundred, still survive near the 
Great Slave Lake, and there are probably nearly two thousand in captivity, in 
various Zoological Gardens, private domains and State Parks. It is only by the 
deliberate and conscious interference of man that the evil wrought by man has 
been arrested. 
A second example that I may select is also taken from the continent of North 
America, but it is specially notable because it is sometimes urged, as in India, 
that migratory birds require no protection. Audubon relates that just a century 
ago Passenger Pigeons existed in countless millions, and that for four days 
at a time the sky was black with the stream of migration. The final extinction 
of this species has taken place since the last meeting of the Association in Dundee. 
In 1906 there were actually five single birds living, all of which had been bred 
in captivity, and I understand that these last survivors of a prolific species 
are now dead, although the birds ranged in countless numbers over a great 
continent. 
It would be futile to discuss in detail the precise agencies by which the 
destruction of animal life is wrought, or the pretexts or excuses for them. The 
most potent factors are the perfection of the modern firearm and the enormous 
