120 
BIG GAME AND TSETSE FLIES 
and there is no warrant for the belief that the nagana parasite 
only occurs in game animals ; in fact, it has been found in 
the ordinary wild jackal. 
3. There is every reason for believing that the nagana 
parasite can occur in an innocuous form in a number of different 
animals, and, as it is impossible to clear the country of all wild 
animals, it is illogical to imagine that any useful end would be 
gained by the destruction of certain game animals. 
4. It appears to be established that the tsetse fly can live 
for a long period without mammalian blood, and it is possible 
that it can then subsist on vegetable juices. 
5. Abundance of game may be present in a district with no 
fly and no nagana. 
6. Abundance of fly may occur in a district with no large 
game, but only the ordinary small wild animals, such as small 
carnivora, rats, mice, &c., and yet the country may be fatal 
to all domestic animals. This fact, which appears to be quite 
incontrovertible, is alone sufficient to show that the destruction 
of game animals could not permanently free a district of the 
dreaded nagana. 
The sub-committee has expended much time in the collection 
of evidence from trained observers as to the connexion, if any, 
between Glossina morsitans and G. pallipedes and game animals. 
As Sir David Bruce has pointed out, the evidence of untrained 
persons is of little value, and is, indeed, responsible for the 
misconceptions commonly current as to the life history of the 
tsetse fly and its relation to game. Mr. Roosevelt has remarked 
upon the utter unreliability of opinions held by experienced but 
unscientifically trained hunters of big game. The opinions of 
such persons in Africa have frequently been exposed as un- 
tenable when directed to matters proper for scientific inquiry. 
As illustrative of this may be mentioned the fact that Mr. 
Cornelius Van Rooyen, of Plumtree (who was kind enough to 
lay before the sub-committee his view upon the matter under 
inquiry), one of the oldest and best known hunters in Africa, 
says that the tsetse fly lays its eggs in the tail tufts of zebra, 
wildebeeste, &c., and that consequently the connexion between 
game and the fly is most intimate. This opinion could not for 
a moment be held by anyone of any scientific training, for, as 
