HAMLYN'5 MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 



I am now preparing- a report 1 on the wild life of 

 Canada and its conservation, which will probably 

 bt issued by the Commission of Conservation dur- 

 ing the year. This volume will indicate the ex- 

 tent to which those responsible for the conser- 

 vation of our Canadian wild life are fulfilling 

 their responsibilities to posterity. Canadians are 

 realising that Canada is the last stronghold for 

 the greater portion of the big game animals of 

 North America and are taking t'he necessary 

 measures to ensure their adequate protection 

 before it is too late. The rescue of the bison 

 from the borderline of extermination will for ever 

 stand as a monument Lo the foresight of the Cana- 

 dian Government. 



Yours faithfully, 



C. GORDON HEWITT, Consulting Zoologist, 

 Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, Canada, 

 April 30. 



Interesting Letter from Surgeon N. 

 Spencer Nairne, H.M.S. "Challenger." 



It may interest you to know that I was able 

 last week to pay a short visit to Durban Zoo- — 

 their collection of small birds, looking better than 

 ever, and greatly increased in size. 



The Sunbirds and Whydahs attracted me 

 very much, as well as some beautiful Aigrettes 

 which had recently come down from Dares 

 Salaam. I brought down a few small birds for 

 them from Majia Island, none of them rare. 



The Superintendent very kindly obtained for 

 me an extremely tame African Banded Mongoose. 

 I am agreeably surprised in her, for she seems 

 to have all the intelligence of the Indian speci- 

 men which I had always understood was not the 

 case, and she is certainly more affectionate than 

 an Indian specimen I had from you some years 

 ago. I could not get hold of any Meerkat that 

 was tame, they do not appear to be kept much 

 on the coast, and many South Africans proper, 

 whom I had asked about them seem to be quite 

 ignorant of their existence. I understand they 

 come from the Transvaal. 



For some time I had on board here what is 

 called locally a Zanzibar Cat at that place; it 

 appears to> be of the Lemur tribe, but not so 

 pretty as the Madagascar Lemur, it is not banded 

 and its fur is brown. It was quite a young one, 

 and very tame, but my previous experience of an 

 older specimen told that it was wiser to get rid 

 of it, and in addition I don't think it would have 

 lived in a colder climate, so I deposited flirt a!so 



at Durban Zoo; they had not got another of its 

 species. 



At the present time I only have 8 or 9 What 

 I call Cape Canaries, but what some call Mozam- 

 bique Sparrows. I got them up the East Coast; 

 they sing nicely and seem quite happy in a cage 

 on deck all night, and the temperature here has 

 been down to 55, and where they come from- I 

 suppose it was 90 or more in the shade daily; 

 also 1 Blackheaded Weaver, three others have 

 died in the tropics and I attribute their death to 

 eating too many cockroaches. 



At one time at Port Amelia I got about 20 of 

 these birds, but through somebody's carelessness 

 they all escaped, and those that were not killed by 

 a wicked old Bombay cat, got back I think to 

 their once favourite tree in Port Amelia. 



At one out of the world spot on the Coast 

 of Africa two natives in a canoe brught off in a 

 large fish trap 5 delightfully baby wild dogs, at 

 least that's what I took them to be, for they were 

 so tame, and I imagine that if they had been 

 jackals even at that age, they would have been 

 vicious, which they weren't; they had been caught 

 5 weeks; as we had no suitable cage ready for 

 them, we told them to bring them the next day, 

 but the next day it blew so hard that there was 

 no communication with the shore, and we had to 

 leave before the weather moderated, and we 

 never went back there, and I was never able to 

 get any elsewhere. 



— © 



ELEPHANTS IN ADDO BUSH. 



THE WHOLE HERD TO BE 

 EXTERMINATED. 



In the Cape Provincial Council, a few days 

 ago the Administrator moved : That this Council 

 confirms the agreement between the Administra- 

 tor and Major Pretorius, dated November 25, 

 1918, in reference to the reduction of the herd of 

 elephants in the Addo Bush (Alexandria Division) 

 and decides that the whole herd shall be exter- 

 minated. 



He said that if the Union Government had 

 agreed to pay the expense of the upkeep of the 

 elephants he would have let them live, but the 

 Government would not agree, and so the elephants 

 would have to- go. The only objection was a 

 sentimental one. Members had not seen them; 

 and it was perhaps as well that they did not. 

 (Laughter.) There would be certain revenue of 

 £4,000 or £5,000 -accruing from the destruction 

 of the animals. 



