Readers are invited to refer to Oryx, III, 6, “What of the Serengeti?” and to Professor Pearsall's Serengeti Report in Oryx, IV, 4.

In June and July, 1957, soon after Professor Pearsall's report was published, the Tanganyika Government held a Committee of Inquiry on the Serengeti. Professor Pearsall was flown to Arusha to give evidence and was the most important witness at the Inquiry; indeed the Committee's recommendations published in November, 1957, were to a great extent based on his survey.

Until 1952 there was no agency in India directly concerned with the preservation of the country's wild life, and the Forest Departments of the various States were only able to extend a limited measure of protection within certain of the reserved forests under their jurisdiction.

At the end of 1952 the constitution of the Indian Board for Wild Life, consisting of non-officials as well as of officials, to advise the Central Government in New Delhi, was an important step forward in nature conservation in India. It was followed within a very short time by the constitution of State Wild Life Boards in nearly all the States of the Indian Union. By now several States also possess separate Wild Life Departments, within the Forest Department, concerned solely with the preservation of wild life.

For some twenty odd years I have been a photographer of wild life in the Malayan jungle with some measure of success in the daylight field. But not until eighteen months ago did I turn my attention to night photography—after watching a large sambar stag, hind and fortnight-old fawn one moonlight night from a hide near a salt lick.

My cameras are an Agiflex III, 2¼ × 2¼, with a 24 cm. tele lens and a 35 mm. Kine Exakta VX with a 13·5 cm. tele lens. These cameras are used side by side on a brass bar which is fitted on to a turn-tilt head on a very heavy solid tripod. The tripod is firmly established at one observation window of the hide. At the other window two flashguns are mounted either on tripods or posts driven into the ground. A third flashgun— an extension unit from one of the two main flashguns—is mounted on a post at the corner of the hide some 8 feet away from the cameras and 6 feet above them.

For a number of reasons peculiar to Ceylon it is a practical impossibility to make anything but a very approximate estimate of the total elephant population of this island. In 1950, however, the warden of the Department of Wild Life announced the total population to be not much in excess of 1,000 animals; and if we are to work on any figure in assessing the present and future population trend, we must accept this estimate. The warden states further that the annual net increase of the wild population is in the neighbourhood of 6 per cent to 7 per cent which allows for natural deaths, and according to this figure we should, at the close of 1957, have had a total wild elephant population of about 1,500 animals. This, however, takes no account of the number of deaths by gunshot injuries, illicit captures, casualties during periods of intense drought, etc., that take place annually and do not seem to diminish over the years. The result is that, instead of a gradual increase or even the maintenance of a constant population, there is an annual net decrease of approximately thirty animals.

This is a brief report on some of the birds and mammals that are, or have been, on the endangered list and which, in whole or in part, are under the jurisdiction of the United States Government. It describes the position up to June 30, 1958.

Species that apparently have been lost for ever include the ivory-billed woodpecker, Campephilus principalis, and the Eskimo curlew, Numenius borealis. It is believed that the last ivory-billed woodpecker was seen by a biologist of the Fish and Wildlife Service on what is known as the “Singer Tract” in northern Lousiana in 1944. Within recent years, reports have been received that there were a few of these birds in some remote swamps in northern Florida. Careful investigation by qualified ornithologists failed to confirm these reports and the refuge set up for their intended protection has been abandoned.* There has not been an authentic record of the Eskimo curlew since 1945, when two were rather reliably reported from Galveston Island, Texas.

Almost from the date of their discovery by Captain Cook in 1775 the seal stocks of South Georgia have formed the basis of a lucrative, though initially sporadic, industry.

South Georgia lies between 54 degrees and 55 degrees South and between 36 degrees and 38 degrees West. Despite its low latitude it has an antarctic climate, being south of the Antarctic Convergence at all seasons of the year. True sea ice is probably never formed on any of its coasts though enormous quantities of brash ice from the many glaciers may frequently obstruct access to certain beaches. Meteorological observations are made at King Edward Cove, a sheltered spot on the north-east coast, which does not perhaps represent truly the severity of the climate. In 1953 the average temperature throughout the year was 35·6 degrees F. and the extreme minimum recorded was 10 degrees F. in July. Almost certainly the exposed parts of the coast, particularly on the south-west side, frequently experience temperatures below zero. Violent winds are common. In 1953 the mean wind-speed was 8·9 knots and precipitation, mostly in the form of snow, amounted to 1,257·6 mm. The pattern of the climate of South Georgia is delineated by the relatively low temperatures, the prevailing high winds and the heavy precipitation.

On the 18th June, 1958, Lieutenant-Colonel E. H. Cobb, O.B.E., gave our Society a most interesting lecture on The Markhor, Capra falconeri, the Great Goat of the Himalayas. He illustrated his lecture with his own slides and with films most kindly lent by Sir Claremont Skrine and Count Krasicki.