THE WORKING OF THE WILD BIRDS PROTECTION ACT 3 



application to the Secretary for Scotland was in due time 

 sent in. An Order was then issued, on the /th of January 

 1897, placing Tentsmuir under the operation of the Act 

 for five years from the following month of March. 



The writer, who had the advantage of the suggestions and 

 advice of the editors of this magazine, drew up a list of birds 

 to be protected under the Act, which list was that eventually 

 adopted. His desire was to see included under the prohibition 

 the eggs of all birds which bred, or which were likely to breed, 

 on the moor, excepting only those of birds noxious to 

 agriculture, or so common as to require no protection ; but 

 the eggs of one or two rather improbable breeders which 

 happened to resemble those of more common birds were 

 also included in the list, in order to obviate as far as possible 

 the necessity for skilled evidence in the course of any legal 

 proceedings which might have to be taken should any con- 

 traventions of the Order be reported. 



On the whole these efforts were well rewarded ; for at 

 the close of the succeeding breeding season there was quite 

 a different story to tell. Formerly neither force, argument, 

 nor persuasion were of much avail ; but now, to all who did 

 go to the moor for the purpose of gathering eggs, the appear- 

 ance of a watcher or gamekeeper was the signal of general 

 flight. There were, however, comparatively few who attempted 

 to defy the law. Even up to the present time only one 

 serious case has been reported, namely, on 2oth June 1898, 

 when two labourers from Tayport were found with eighty-one 

 Terns' eggs in their possession. These men were charged 

 before the Sheriff at Cupar, and were fined i : 43. each; 

 but the other two or three trivial contraventions which have 

 been discovered were all committed in ignorance, and in 

 their case a verbal reminder of the existence of the Act was 

 all that was called for. 



In 1898 the Secretary for Scotland proposed to all the 

 County Councils in the country that the protection of wild 

 birds and their nests and eggs should be undertaken, under 

 their auspices, in something like a systematic and methodical 

 manner ; and two short but sufficiently comprehensive lists 

 of the birds which it was deemed advisable to favour with 

 the protection afforded by the various Acts were at the same 



