BRITISH ASSOCIATION: ZOOLOGICAL SECTION. 397 
France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Belgium, and, with the limita- 
tion that they are directed almost solely towards the protection of 
animals that can be regarded as game, they afford great promise for 
the future. But this limitation is still stamped upon them, and 
even so enthusiastic a naturalist as Major Stevenson-Han.ilton, the 
Warden of the Transvaal Government Game Reserves, who has 
advocated the substitution of the camera for the rifle, appears to be 
of the opinion that the platform of the Convention of 1900 is 
sufficient. It included the sparing of females and immature animals, 
the establishment of close seasons and game sanctuaries, the absolute 
protection of rare species, restrictions on the export for trading pur- 
poses of skins, horns, and tusks, and the prohibition of pits, snares, 
and game traps. Certainly the rulers of Africa are seeing to the 
establishment of game reserves. As for British Africa, there are 
two in Somaliland, two in the Sudan, two in Uganda, and two in 
British East Africa (with separate reserves for eland, rhinoceros, and 
hippopotamus), two in Nyasaland, three in the Transvaal, seven in 
Rhodesia, several in Natal and in Cape Colony, and at least four in 
Nigeria. These are now administered by competent officials, who in 
addition are usually the executive officers of the game laws outside 
the reserved territory. Here again, however, the preservation of 
game animals and of other animals of economic value, and of a few 
named species is the fundamental idea. In 1909 I had the honour of 
being a member of a deputation to the Secretary of State for the 
Colonies, arranged by the Society for the Preservation of the Wild 
Fauna of the Empire, one of the most active and successful bodies 
engaged in arousing public opinion on the subject. Among the 
questions on which we were approaching Lord Crewe was that of 
changes in the locality of reserves. Sometimes it had happened that 
for the convenience of settlers, or because of railway extension, or for 
some other reason, proposals were made to open or clear the whole 
or part of a reserve. When I suggested that the substitution of one 
piece of ground for another, even of equivalent area, might be satis- 
factory from the point of view of the preservation of large animals, 
but was not satisfactory from the zoological point of view, that in 
fact pieces of primeval land and primeval forest contained many 
small animals of different kinds which would be exterminated once 
and for all when the land was brought under cultivation, the point 
was obviously new not only to the Colonial Secretary, who very 
courteously noted it, but to my colleagues. 
This brings me to the general conclusion to which [ wish to direct 
your attention, and for which I hope to engage your sympathy. We 
may safely leave the preservation of game animals, or rare species if 
these are well known and interesting, and of animals of economic 
value, to the awakened responsibility and the practical sense of the 
Governing Powers, stimulated as these are by the enthusiasm of 
special Societies. Game laws, reserves where game may recuperate, 
close seasons, occasional prohibition and the real supervision of 
licence holders are all doing their work effectively. But there 
remains something else to do, something which I| think should 
