230 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
by the appearance of some natural factor which it has been amply able 
to resist before its numbers were depleted by the demands of the 
furriers. 
In Africa a number of animals have reached this point. Some of 
them have been killed off by natural causes, and others by the develop- 
ment of agriculture and by firearms in the hands of natives. In Africa 
epidemics appear to have unusually favorable facilities for spreading 
and many of the ungulates are standing upon the brink of disappear- 
ance. Mr. Herbert Lang has given us the names of the more important 
of the African mammals which have either disappeared or are about 
to disappear. We mention the quagga and the blauwbok, which have 
disappeared completely, while the mountain zebra, the bontebuck, 
the white rhinoceros, the okapi, the black wildebeest, the greater kudu, 
and the elephants of the Addo Bush are about to join them. The ele- 
phants of the Addo Bush are being systematically exterminated under 
government supervision, and the story of their downfall has been given 
in Hamlyn’s Menagerie Magazine. 
The center of the fur trade has passed over to this country. Before 
the war London was the world’s fur market, but it now appears that 
the control has definitely passed over to the United States, and the great 
market of the present day is here with us. The figures given out by 
the Fur Dressers and the Fur Dyers Association show that in New 
York alone over eighty million skins were dressed and over ninety- 
seven million were dyed by the members of this association for the 
years 1918, 1919, and 1920. Thus it would appear that the heart of 
this industry beats in our own country, and if there is to be any pre- 
scription written, the initiative should be taken by us. The fur dealers 
themselves, for the most part, seem to realize that the wild animals are 
an asset of their industry, and judging by the editorials of the differ- 
ent journals, and the articles that appear, we believe that the majority 
of them, if the matter v/ere put to a vote, would encourage a better 
method of trapping and a more extended control over the wild animal 
supply. It would suit their own purposes better if animals could be 
taken only during that part of the winter when they were prime; and 
the restriction of the hunting period to such a time of the year would 
be an important first step toward the conservation of fur bearers. But 
as matters now stand, when fur prices begin to mount to such figures 
that a few skins represent many dollars, then in the out of way places 
where laws have little significance at any time, men go out and kill 
every fur bearer that may come to hand, and run out their traps for 
whatever they may catch. 
