THE WILD FAUNA OF THF EMPIRE. 65 



A high authority on matters of sport, Mr. E. N. 

 Buxton, has recently written a work entitled " Two 

 African Trips," in which he criticises the system 

 adopted, under which a large extent of country 

 is treated as a partial sanctuary ; that is to say, 

 officers arc allowed to shoot in it, but visitors are 

 prohibited from doing so. In dealing with this 

 subject, it must be remembered that the visitor 

 comes to the Sudan for purposes of travel and 

 recreation during the least trying season of the 

 year. The officers, on the other hand, have, for 

 the most part, to live a very hard and 'solitary life in 

 a most trying climate during the greater portion of 

 the year. In my opinion, it is perfectly justifiable, 

 in part return for the excellent and very arduous 

 services rendered by the British officials, civil and 

 military, in the Sudan, to allow them certain 

 privileges in the matter of sport. The district 

 reserved for officers, however, was, perhaps, some- 

 what excessive. Mr. Butler writes : " The west 

 bank of the White Nile has been heavily shot over 

 this year, and the number of water-buck in" par- 

 ticular has been reduced. It will be an advantage 

 When a greater selection of routes can be offered 

 to shooting parties, which will result in the killing 

 °f game being more generally distributed and less 

 localized." Mr. Butler, therefore, has recommended 

 that, until a wider field can be provided for visitors, 

 no district should be specially reserved for officers, 

 but that a smaller tract of country should be treated 

 a s a complete sanctuary, where no one, whether 

 officer or visitor, should be allowed to shoot. This 



