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NATURAL HISTORY
very fine insect, also fairly common, is the Moon Moth which has a wing-span of about four to six inches, has swallow-tailed wings, and is usually a soft silvery green in colour.
Local Societies and Exhibitions. Besides the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, there is another prominent local society, the Hong Kong Natural History Society, whose objects are to facilitate and encourage the study of natural history, particularly in Hong Kong itself. The animal enclosures and aviaries in the Botanic Gardens contain some of the species of the Colony's fauna, besides certain other non-indigenous species.
Protection of Fauna. The Wild Birds and Wild Mammals Protection Ordinance, 1954, gives legal protection to all wild birds except for game birds, for which there are close seasons, and except for vermin. It also protects three of the rarer mammals and provides a close season for deer. There are seven wild life sanctuaries, one of which is the whole of Hong Kong Island. Honorary game wardens help to enforce the Ordinance, which also provides for the appointment of paid game wardens on the staff of the Director of Agriculture and Forestry, who is the licensing authority for the issue of game licences. The greatest threat to the wild life of Hong Kong probably lies in the continued prevalence of trapping and netting, particularly of birds, and in the destruction of the habitats of birds and mammals by building development and public works schemes.
Marine Fauna. The fish of Hong Kong are of extraordinary diversity. Situated just within the tropics and flanked to the West by the Pearl River, which brings down enormous quantities of food and nutrients from China, the waters of the Colony support a great variety of both warm and temperate fishes, many of which appear seasonally on their breeding or feeding migrations and give rise to major fisheries. In the summer months of recent years large sharks and manta rays have been particularly abundant, and this summer a 10 foot shark weighing 450 lbs was hooked and landed after a four hour fight by a party of skin divers who had first met the shark underwater.
Hidden from sight to all except divers is the profusion of corals, sea-fans, sea-lilies and many other beautifully formed and colourful marine animals which thrive in Hong Kong waters. Another coloured plate gives some idea of submarine life.