Major Barker spent nearly twenty years of his life in the Game Preservation Department of the Sudan. During the last fifteen years he worked single-handed with only a clerk to help him. The Sudan is nearly a million square miles in area, and in Major Barker's days the methods of communication were road, rail, and river only. Yet he managed during his service to create two national parks and ten game reserves, to bring the game laws up to date in such a form that they could be easily enforced, and to leave game preservation throughout most of the country in an excellent state.

The serious situation of the Red Deer in Scotland is at last becoming known to the public and, with legislation for the protection of the deer now being drafted, it is an opportune moment to consider what aspects such legislation should cover.

The Great Indian One-horned Rhinoceros, probably India's rarest and most interesting animal, occupies a unique position in the world to-day. Listed by the survival service of the International Office for the Protection of Nature as one of the vanishing species which requires all possible steps to be taken for its protection, it has the eyes of scientists, naturalists and others in all parts of the world focussed on it and its habitat.

The following notes are compiled from the Superintendent's field diaries and refer to the valley of the Tembeling river and its tributaries lying within the National Park.

Open plains, scorching and shadeless during the summer, windswept and freezing during the winter night, present a hard environment indeed. The surprising fact is that any form of wild life has been able to exist in such utterly waterless places. Yet up to the beginning of the present century an interesting assemblage of animals existed in the Arabian desert. Even when modern rifles came into general use the species held their own in the vast spaces to a very satisfactory extent. But the last decade has witnessed the advent of a shocking predator, namely the “Mighty Jeep”. It cannot be long now before motorized hunting parties will sweep Arabia's fauna into uttermost corners, where a subsequent drought will whiten its bones.

Throughout the report the Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) is referred to as the Square-lipped Rhinoceros and not as the White Rhinoceros. Both terms have been in common use for many years; the former is the more descriptive and it is hoped that the latter, which is a complete misnomer, may fall into disuse.

History records the Pinnated Grouse, or prairie chicken (Tympanchus cupido). as known to the early American settlers who referred to the bird as the Minnesota Grouse. The demand for land in the United States quickly extirpated the bird from most of its former range as early as 1870. It appeared to enter Saskatchewan from the south-east in about 1900. No doubt the wealth of unsettled Canadian prairies was responsible for the extension of its range in Saskatchewan—south of highway No. 5 and east of the elbow of the South Saskatchewan River.

In the years following the first world war the Saskatchewan Government attempted to conserve its beaver population by ordinary “close” and “open” seasons, in the hope that the beavers would increase during the close seasons and trapping become possible once more. This policy caused rapid reduction of the beaver population, until soon there were vast areas, previously abounding with beavers, where the only signs of past plenty were wrecked dams and abandoned lodges. The policy was also detrimental to the way of life of the thousands of trappers. These men adopted “trap and get out” methods, perhaps making, and spending, several thousand dollars during an open season, but being left destitute and dependent on the State during the close seasons which followed.

In Jamaica the responsibility of administering the Wild Life Protection Law rests with the Forest Department. The Department is assisted and directed by the Wild Life Protection Committee, a body nominated by His Excellency the Governor and consisting of legislators, scientists, sportsmen and Government officials. The policy of this Committee and the Forest Department is to ensure the protection of all forms of wild life consistent with the interests of legitimate sportsmen and with the control of pests.

In 1950, from January to July, I was in British Guiana making a collection of live zoological specimens, which went to certain zoological gardens in Britain. During those months I gained some impressions of the status of wild life in the Colony. It was not possible in such a short period to conduct any very thorough investigation, but my work allowed me excellent opportunities to make personal observations and inquiries into matters connected with fauna preservation in Guiana.