SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



169 



PRESERVATION OF OUR FAUNA AND FLORA. 



By John T. Carrington. 



TT is useless to disguise the fact that, however 

 ^ slowly, many of our native animals and plants 

 are gradually but surely doomed to extinction in 

 these isles. It is therefore due to posterity on our 

 part to do all we can to preserve such species for 

 their pleasure and instruction. If we go carefully 

 through the list of plants and animals which have 

 become actually or comparatively extinct with us 

 in moderately recent times, many will be sur- 

 prised to find its length. The causes of such 

 extinction are varied as they are numerous, some 

 doubtless being climatic changes which are beyond 

 the control of man. Agriculture and drainage 

 works are further sources of extermination; the 

 individual naturalist being as little able to cope 

 with them, as with natural forces. Fortunately for 

 the biological student and the collector, the condi- 

 tion of agriculture in this country has not latterly 

 been such as to cause much recent reclamation, but 

 it is possible that some reorganization of the 

 industry may create a new demand for land, when 

 many of our best collecting grounds will disappear. 

 We have much to be thankful for to the great land- 

 owners who preserve game ; otherwise the names 

 of some more species of our native wild creatures 

 would long since have gone from the British lists. 

 Game preserving means the retaining, in a more or 

 less wild condition, of large tracts of woodland and 

 heather which would be cut down or turned into 

 barren sheep pastures. We need only look at some 

 of the Departments of France, where the little 

 cultivators have turned the whole face of the 

 country into nothing less than a series of well-kept 

 gardens. The same tendency is indicated for 

 Britain, the populace already hungrily calling for 

 the land. The first step has come in the extension 

 of the allotment-garden system, which must in 

 course of time extend to the three acres, served by 

 light railways by the sides of country roads, as in 

 Belgium. The outlook, therefore, is in the direction 

 of extinction of all native animals and plants which 

 cannot adapt themselves to their new surroundings. 

 What is to be done to protect them ? The 

 futile cry of certain people, that it is the birds'- 

 nesting boy or the rapacious collector that extin- 

 guishes our fauna is absurd as it is weak. What 

 is wanted is not so much the attempt to 

 protect living things in face of changes of the 

 country going on through agriculture, drainage, 

 manufactories, or otherwise, but the establishment 

 in as many counties as possible of reservations, 

 avowedly for the preservation of both plants and 

 animals already occurring there. This is not by 

 any means so large a task as may at first appear. 

 We will take an example which might become 



September, 1895. — No. 19, Vol. II. 



typical. Few more suitable places of its own 

 character could be found than Wicken Fen, in 

 Cambridgeshire. It is true it has been a good 

 deal drained, but many things of interest still 

 remain. There is no knowing what may become 

 of this primeval bit of fenland in a few years time. 

 An association of those interested in biology should 

 be formed to get control of Wicken Fen for its 

 conservation. The rentals for reed cutting or 

 other sources of revenue must be comparatively 

 small. Most of these might continue and prac- 

 tically cover the annual outlay which the scciety 

 would have to pay. If properly managed and 

 shown to be feasible, in course of time the county 

 councils might take over the management and 

 responsibility of these reservations. Naturalists 

 could have collecting tickets issued, which 

 would be far more satisfactory than the pending 

 annoyance of being turned off by some churlish 

 gamekeeper 'or farmer. Already county councils 

 are beginning to show inclination to do 

 work of this kind in the preservation of wild birds 

 and their eggs. It will be only necessary for 

 private enterprise among local or general natura- 

 lists to show the way to these reservations, and the 

 county councils will take up the subject with very 

 little pressure. Few counties are there without 

 some special locality such as we have referred to, 

 either in marsh, woodland, or moorland. We have 

 already a few such reservations in the New Forest, 

 Epping Forest, and elsewhere. A list of public 

 properties of this kind would be useful, and we 

 should be glad of information about them and their 

 regulations. Cannot powerful bodies like some of 

 the county natural history societies lead the way ? 

 Land is cheap enough to rent now-a-days, probably 

 at its very lowest, and long leases of many 

 suitable places could be readily obtained by 

 responsible bodies. These tenancies need not be of 

 great extent, but should be as natural as possible 

 and typical of the surrounding country. The golf 

 players are far more enterprising than the natura- 

 lists, and are fast getting control of localities which 

 would be equally useful to the students and 

 collectors. Unfortunately, golf and natural history 

 cannot run side by side on the reservations, for the 

 animals and plants which are not scared away by 

 the continual presence of players are soon trampled 

 under foot by the golfers. We feel sure this subject 

 is one well worth consideration during the coming 

 winter at the meetings of natural history and 

 other scientific societies, which might eventually 

 form themselves into unions for the purpose of 

 supporting a trial of one or more reservations thus 

 indicated. 



