Every lover of nature regrets that man has exterminated so many kinds of animals or that these have lost their means of living and become extinct through changes brought about on the earth's surface to meet Man's increasing needs.

Ceylon, for its size, has been richly endowed with a wealth of indigenous fauna; many species that have been scientifically separated from their close relatives on the Indian continent are peculiar to the island.

The African fauna has been subjected to pressure from two far distant sources. In the north the well armed Moors and Arabs have long ruled the land, and it is in this region that the faunal population has been most seriously depleted. The Atlantic Ass, depicted in Roman mosaics, disappeared long ago, the Rufous Gazelle and Bubal Hartebeeste have likewise vanished.

New Zealand might be described as a land of surprises done up in very small parcels. It has many minerals, but these, owing to past upheavals, are seldom in payable quantities. Distributed over the country in pockets, they affect the soil which, in turn, has a bearing upon plant and bird life. Due to this and climatic conditions a botanist will find different plants as he passes from Norfolk Island towards the Antarctic. Some of them occur in one small area and nowhere else.

The interest of members of the Society in the fate of the Red Squirrel and its presumed supplantation by the Grey has led to an interesting inquiry. The Director-General of the Nature Conservancy, Captain Cyril Diver, very kindly got in touch with Mr. Charles Elton, of the Bureau of Animal Population, who sent for our use a report by Miss Monica Shorten of a survey carried out by her in 1944–45 on the distribution of the two squirrels. Captain Diver also consulted Sir William Ling Taylor, C.B.E., late Director-General of the Forestry Commission, who has kindly allowed us to make use of the reply he gave. We have also to thank Dr. Maurice Burton for his article “The Chequered Story of Red Squirrels” in the Illustrated London News of 7th April, 1951.

Apart from sixty-one Forest Nature Reserves, with a total area of 12,906·7 acres, the following national parks and nature reserves exist in the Union of South Africa:—

The area covered by these thirty-eight national parks and reserves is approximately 8¼ million acres, or 13,000 square miles. As a nation, therefore, the South Africans have no reason to be ashamed of the provision that has been made by means of national parks and reserves for the country's fauna and flora.

M. van der Goes van Naters, Secretary of the Netherlands Provisional Nature Conservancy, spoke of the need for the Union to act as arbitrator in all international matters. Giving examples under four headings for the need for action, he said: “… a system must be established based on the following points:—

(a) Among the reports of the technical conference there are three concerned with frontier and international parks and in addition a résumé written by the Secretary-General.

I could fill a book with stories about that dear fellow, the Indian elephant, had he not been immortalized by Rudyard Kipling's famous story of that little upstart “Toomai”. The Times has also written about him, and Mr. Craven Hill, F.Z.S., has told stories of his sense of fun.