Wild Life Conservation in Theory and Practice

Abstract

NORTH AMERICA, when first opened up by Europeans, possessed a big-game fauna which, although poor in species, in point of numbers was equalled only by that of southern and central Africa; and it was likewise the home of an extensive and varied fauna of game and other edible birds. To this abundance of wild life is attributable the comparative facility with which the country was explored and settled; but no sooner was the settlement well advanced than ruthless slaughter led to the more or less complete extermination of some species, like the bison and the carrier-pigeon, and a vast reduction in the numbers of others, such as the prongbuck and bighorn. Fashion, sport, and other factors led, later on, to equal havoc among birds of many kinds.

Wild Life Conservation in Theory and Practice.

By Dr. W. T. Hornaday. Pp. vi + 240. (New Haven: Yale University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1914.) Price 6s. 6d. net.