6 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



who is ready to pay A a still larger sum for his ill-gotten 

 plunder. A clause in a new Wild Birds Act which would 

 render it an offence for any one, either from within a protected 

 area, or from outside it, to solicit the taking of eggs of 

 protected birds there, might do something to check what is at 

 present a serious and a growing evil, while over the inter- 

 ference with the nefarious system in all its branches it would 

 only be possible to exult. It is earnestly to be hoped that 

 when the whole matter comes to be reconsidered in the light 

 of a few years' experience of the working of the present 

 Act, this point may be taken up and dealt with. 



The expense entailed, under the terms of the present 

 Act, on any community which takes steps to put it in 

 operation is another matter which might be considered. 

 The provisions of the Act itself are as follows : 



SECTION 4. (i) The Council of an administrative county shall 

 in every year give public notice of any Order under this Act which 

 is in force in any place within their county during the three weeks 

 preceding the commencement of the period of the year during which 

 the Order operates. 



(2) Public notice under this Section shall be given 



(a) As regards each place in which an Order operates, by 

 advertising the order in two local newspapers circulating 

 in or near that place ; 



(/>) By fixing notices of the Order in conspicuous spots 

 within and near each place in which the Order operates ; 

 and 



(c) In such other manner as the Secretary of State may 

 direct, or as the Council may think expedient, with a 

 view to making the Order known to the public. 



The result of these provisions is that the whole text of 

 every Order issued by the Secretary for Scotland in terms of 

 the Act, with all its lists and schedules, has not only to be 

 inserted in extenso in the advertisement columns of two news- 

 papers several times over ; it must also be printed on posters 

 and exhibited on notice boards, ' in conspicuous places within 

 or near each place in which the Order operates,' during three 

 whole weeks in each year. The cost of erecting the notice 

 boards (and of replacing those of them which were defaced 

 or broken up by presumably aggrieved egg-stealers) must 



