410 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Europe tells the same tale. Organized Government destruc- 

 tion is often a most deadly means of extermination, especially 

 when, as is generally the case, monetary rewards are paid for 

 the animals slain. The following is the official list of birds and 

 beasts of prey killed throughout Norway during the years 1893 

 and 1894 :— 



Bears. Wolves. Lynxes. Gluttons. Foxes. Eagles. Hawks. 



1893. 72 50 56 40 11,400 969 4846 



1894. 57 37 44 46 8,646 1081 4727* 



According to Sir H. Pottinger : " Taking consecutive returns of 

 from forty to fifty years ago, we find that, on a rough average, 

 considerably over two hundred Bears were killed annually in 

 Norway, about the same number of Wolves, half as many 

 Lynxes, and a quarter as many Gluttons."! The comparison 

 of these figures will tell its own tale. The Glutton alone seems 

 to hold its own, a fact which, as the above-quoted writer points 

 out, " speaks volumes for the stealthy habits of these animals, 

 and the secure fastnesses which the Norwegian wilds afford 

 them. They alone of all the outlawed tribes have succeeded in 

 holding their own against the vengeful persecution of man." In 

 the palmy days of Eome many animals must have been more 

 plentiful than now, and have been decimated by the requirements 

 of the arena. We read that four hundred Bears were killed in 

 a single day under Caligula ; three hundred on another day 

 under Claudius. Under Nero four hundred Tigers fought with 

 Bulls and Elephants ; four hundred Bears and three hundred 

 Lions were slaughtered by his soldiers. In a single day, at the 



* 'Zoologist' (3), xix. p. 425. — On the other hand, even administrative 

 destruction is sometimes powerless to exterminate. As Prince Kropotkin 

 writes : — " That terrible enemy of the crops of South Eussia — the ' Souslik ' 

 (Spermophilus) — of which some ten millions are exterminated every year by 

 man alone, lives in numberless colonies ; and while the Eussian provincial 

 assemblies gravely discuss the means of getting rid of this enemy of society, 

 it enjoys life in its thousands in the most joyful way " (' Nineteenth Century,' 

 vol. xxviii. p. 704). — A similar record applies to the Eabbit in Australia, 

 of which a few years ago, in New South Wales alone, the Government paid 

 for the skins of twenty-seven million Eabbits in twelve months, and yet 

 extermination is as far off as ever (writer in the ' Times,' quoted by the 

 1 Spectator,' January 4th, 1896). 



f ' Badminton Magazine,' vol. ii.p. 299. 



