San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-09-27
WILD BEASTS OF INDIA.
THEIR SLAUGHTER STIMULATED BY
GOVERNMENT BOUNTleS.

Pecuniary Rewards for the Destruction of
Protection Needed for Wild Elephants.
India's Game Birds-Statistics.
1t is interesting to observe that the spread
of western civilization in India is having
the effect of making necessary legal measures
for the protection of wild birds and game,
and at the same time is bringing about the
gradual determination of the wild beasts and
poisonous snakes with which that country
has always been infested AS the extent of
the land under cultivation has increased,
beasts of prey have of course been de-
stroyed or driven off by the clearing of for
estS and the incoming of man, and innocent
herds of deer and antelope have gone with
them. The government has also stimulated
the slaughter of nOXiOus animals by giving
pecuniary rewards for their destruction, in
consequence of which bounties %, All wild
beasts and AZ 500 venOmouS snakes are Off
cialIy returned as having been destroyed in
1886. Meantime English sportsmen are
keeping up the pursuit OF wild animals, in
which they have been assidUOusly engaged
for a century past.
From every direction, therefore, the beasts
of prey are attacked by man and civilization,
SO that their practical determination has be-
come question Of time only, though plainly
it mus. be a long time, whereas under the old
HindoO and Mohammedan dynasties they en-
jOyed comparative immunity. So far as we
know, no rewards were offered then for their
destruction, and they were hunted merely to
obtain living wild animals foRthe menageries
of the native potcntateS, who delighted in the
fights Of wild beasts
But in this wholesale destruction, Wild
birds and game desirable to preserve are in
Guided, so that in 1879 law for the protec-
ton of wild elephants especially was enacted,
and last year Lord Dufferin and his legisla-
tive council promulgated new game law of
more general application. The wanton
slaughter of wild elephants had been carried
to such an extent that it seemed as If the
species might become extinct in India, as the
buffalo is becoming in this country. There
had also been @ great increase in the NOR
tally among tame elephants employed for
military purposes, particularly during the
protracted campaigns of the mutiny of 1857,
the elephant, despite his huge strength, be-
ing of delicate constitution, and requiring
more care than he could receive in such cam
paigning. The consequence was that the
price of elephants more than doubled and as
tame elephants do not breed in captivity the
only source Of further supply lay in the cap
ture of the wild animals.
Therefore in 1879 a law was passed to pro-
tect the wild elephants from being hunted
for the sake of their ivory and to require
the professional hunters Of elephants to take
out license, under which the government
has the first choice of all newly captured an
imalS for its military purposes. The law of
Lord Dufferin, enacted last year, bears a
general likeness to our own game laws, pro-
vides for q close or breeding season, and pro
tectS many insectivorous birds as valuable
allies of the farmer, and also the pea fowl,
which is regarded as a sacred bird in many
parts of India.
1t seems that almost every game bird that
had its breeding place in India was pursued
durlaa E.a whole twelve D2onths.of the year,
Ito BE- COHtiHUsd