EDITORIAL GLEANINGS 39 



useful guide to naturalists or others proceeding to Khartoum. Routes 

 and expenses are detailed. There are several restrictions. Anyone 

 wishing to take skins, horns, &c, of any ruminant through Egypt 

 must obtain a special permit, and the specimens must be packed in 

 hermetically and Government-sealed tin-lined boxes or tins. Live 

 ruminants — in consequence of the possibility of cattle plague being 

 introduced — can only be exported via Suakim. 



Mr. George Watson Cole, of New York, has sent us a privately 

 printed Bibliography of the scientific results obtained by the ' Chal- 

 lenger' Expedition at and near Bermuda. To students of insular 

 faunas this digest should prove a very great convenience. 



Lord Curzon, whilst on his recent tour in Burma, gave an inter- 

 esting reply to an address from the Burma Game Preservation Society. 

 Speaking of game preservation in India and Burma, he said that, 

 though he yielded to no one in his love for sport, he had to look at 

 the question in the public interest, and he had no doubt that wild life 

 in India was on the decrease. Thus Lions were shot in Central India 

 up to the Mutiny ; they are now confined to an ever-decreasing patch 

 of forest in Kathiawar. Except in the native States, the Terai, and 

 the forest preserves, Tigers are undoubtedly diminishing. The Rhi- 

 noceros is all but exterminated, except in Assam. Bison are not so 

 numerous nor so easy to obtain as they once were. Elephants have 

 already had to be protected in some parts ; above all, Deer are rapidly 

 dwindling, and many beautiful and harmless varieties of birds are 

 pursued for their plumage. The causes of all this decrease in the 

 wild life in India are various ; some are natural in consequence of the 

 increase of cultivation and population; others are artificial, such as 

 the great increase in the number of persons carrying firearms of range 

 and precision, the depredations of native hunters, and the shooting of 

 immature animals and females. Some argued that wild animals were 

 bound to disappear in India as surely as Wolves had in England, 

 while others said that India was so vast, and had such large forest 

 preserves, that wild animals may safely be left to look after them- 

 selves ; but he did not agree with either of these propositions. Wild 

 animals, he said, must not be fostered at the expense of the people, 

 and the cultivator must have reasonable means of protection. The 

 Government, hitherto, have not been very bold in their legislation ; 

 Elephants have been protected, a close season for certain kinds of 



