Note 16 — A RHINOCEROS MOVING SLOWLY THROUGH THE GRASS OF THE VELT—TAKEN WITH THE TELEPHOTO-LENS AT A DISTANCE OF 120 METRES, AND WHERE THERE WAS NO COVER. THE ANIMAL LOOKED REMARKABLY LIKE AN ANT-HILL. ON ITS BACK ONE SEES A BIRD—(BUPHAGUS ERYTHRORHYNCUS, Stanl.)—HUNTING FOR TICKS. III New Light on the Tragedy of Civilisation

While this book is passing through the press several correspondents have sent me an article published by Freiherr von Schrötter-Wohnsdorf in the Monatsheften des Allgemeinen Deutschen Jagdschutsvereins of August 24th, 1906. According to this article, during the year 1906, by ministerial orders, in four of the chief forest districts of East Prussia, sixty-seven head of wild elk were killed off, though hitherto the few remaining living specimens of the elk have been so carefully preserved both on public and private estates. This thorough-going course was adopted for the sake of the preservation of the woods from damage by the animals. That this should have been done in the case of a disappearing species of wild animal, hitherto so carefully preserved, and of which private individuals were allowed to shoot only male specimens, is in open contradiction with those views as to the necessity of protecting the rarer beauties of nature, which are making such progress every day. It seems therefore fitting that I should note the fact here as showing how well grounded is my opinion that the progress of civilised culture is destructive to those treasures of nature that have come down to us from primeval times.