506 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



he will not be punished. This is the actual 

 situation at the very few remaining frontier 

 points, and this is why this Society, while back- 

 ing up legislation, proposes to put the main 

 brunt of its fight on 



ANIMAL REFUGES. 



Every territory and every state should have 

 animal refuges for the different kinds of wild 

 life remaining within its borders ; and these 

 refuges will soon become the absolute guarantee 

 of the survival of animals like the beautiful 

 prong-horned antelope, which is now on the 

 verge of extinction, and almost certainly the next 

 animal to disappear unless instant measures are 

 taken. 



There are two districts in our mind among 

 many others, which are particularly designed by 

 nature as refuges. One is the Hell Creek re- 

 gion itself, untillable, uninhabitable, a chaos of 

 canons, supporting only a few head of cattle, 

 and that at great risk during every severe sea- 

 son. This is an ideal home for mountain sheep 

 and black-tailed deer, and even for buffalo and 

 prong-horned antelope. 



Another preserve region we have visited, is on 

 the head-waters of the Niobrara River or Run- 

 ning Water, in western Nebraska, on the ranch 

 lands of James H. Cook, one of the western 

 pioneers, who is willing and ready to devote his 

 lands and his life to the noble work of conserva- 

 tion. This is an ideal home for the prong- 

 horn and the buffalo, with water, shelter and 

 grass. Prairie, plains and bottomlands combine 

 in the same region — which is also one of the 

 great historic crossing grounds of the migrations 

 of buffalo before the northern and southern 

 herds were divided. 



These are two practical examples of the pos- 

 sibilities of the game refuge plan, which our 

 committee will take into consideration. Like 

 all great movements, the first step is the crea- 

 tion of a strong and earnest sentiment, and the 

 establishment of a sound and practical policy. 

 To this sentiment the present Bulletin is 

 chiefly devoted, and to the exposition of what has 

 and what has not been done. 



THE CASE OF DAVID'S DEER. 



BUT for the enterprise of His Grace the 

 Duke of Bedford, Pere David's Deer, for- 

 merly of Manchuria, would now be as ex- 

 tinct as the dodo. The Boxer war destroyed 

 the last known specimens that lived in China, 

 and all those living ten years ago in the zoolog- 

 ical gardens of Europe are now dead. 



David's Deer is a large and handsome animal, 

 with a long tail, and queer-shaped antlers of 



good size. It owes its name to the fact that it 

 was first brought to the attention of zoologists 

 by Father David, a Catholic missionary, in 

 China. Of this species there are living to-day 

 precisely twenty-eight individuals ; and all of 

 them are in the matchless collection of hoofed 

 animals owned and maintained by the Duke of 

 Bedford, at Woburn Abbey, England, thirty 

 miles northwest of London. That collection is 

 strictly private, and is to be seen by no one save 

 on the invitation of its owner, and by his co- 

 operation. 



Zoologically, as well as otherwise, it is risky 

 and dangerous to preserve in one basket the 

 whole of a lot of particularly valuable eggs. In 

 no form of close captivity could David's Deer 

 be safer, or more immune from epidemic dis- 

 eases, than in Woburn Park. But, at the same 

 time, the eggs are all in one basket. If rinder- 

 pest should break out in England, if the foot- 

 and-mouth disease, or the "game disease," or 

 tuberculosis should enter Woburn Park (which 

 Heaven forbid!) it might go hard with David's 

 Deer. If Germany should invade England — as 

 so many staid Englishmen fear she might or 

 could do, — the herd of David's Deer at Woburn 

 Park might easily be butchered to make a sol- 

 dier's holiday, as was the herd of 200 in the Im- 

 perial Park south of Pekin. 



We have respectfully suggested to the Duke 

 of Bedford that it would be a wise and generous 

 act if he were to place an adult male and two 

 females from his herd of David's Deer in some 

 great wilderness preserve, we care not where it 

 might be, to become as wild and mayhap as 

 fruitful as the three English red deer that so 

 wonderously stocked Waipura Island in New 

 Zealand, and without any deterioration through 

 in-breeding. Three animals located in the right 

 spot, under intelligent and skilful management 

 in the beginning, might easily rehabilitate the 

 species in a wild state, and restore it to the 

 world's fauna. 



Of course no one can say in a moment just 

 where such an effort might best be made. It is 

 certain, however, that four elements are neces- 

 sary of success: A climate that is not too severe; 

 abundant food and water; a variety of cover, on 

 hills, valleys and plains and probably swampy 

 ground ; absolute protection from predatory ani- 

 mals, and from dangerous men, generally. 



It is possible that all these conditions could 

 be found in some of the deer forests of Scot- 

 land ; but it is doubtful whether in all Scotland 

 one could be found in which the David's Deer 

 would not be in great danger of being shot by 

 mistake. I think such an effort should be put 

 forth only in a fenced preserve, of large size, in 



