INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS, 129 



Government, in the interest of the teeming millions, the tillers of the soil, to 

 extend the provisions of the Act throughout the length and breadth of India. 

 1 hope that what I have here advanced will induce the Society* to make a 

 fitting representation to the Government on the subject, in order to move the 

 Supreme Legislature to pass a more liberal measure in the all-important interest 

 of agriculturists. 



No. 1014 of 1888. 



General Department; 

 Bombay Castle, 28th March 1888. 



Forwarded to the Director of Land Records and Agriculture for the favour of 

 report. 



J, DeC. Atkins, 

 Under-Secretary to Government. 



No. 807 of 1888. 



Poona, 8th May 1888. 

 Report , 



The important point to clear up is, it appears to me, what game birds or birds 

 used for food are insectivorous. I regret I am Unable to furnish this informa- 

 tion on which I think depends for its utility any opinion that can be given. 

 My own impression is that the birds which are usually shot are either gram- 

 inivorous, such as, I believe, partridge, rock-grouse, quail, or if not gramini- 

 vorous, as wild duck and snipe, are not purely insectivorous, or at any rate 

 do not make their preservation of much assistance to the agriculturists. What 

 birds are snared I do not knoAv. Accurate information on these points would, 

 no doubt, be given by Mr. G. W. Vidal, C. S. 



2. It appears, however, that the application of the Act even in municipalities 

 and cantonments only, will do more to check indiscriminate slaughter than is 

 thought by the writer of the paper in the Englishman. His remark that the 

 agricultural area within cantonment or municipal limits is trifling, misses the 

 point. The game sold in towns or cantonmnts is brought from areas far outside 

 the civic limits, in fact, very seldom from within them. Enforcement of the 

 Act will therefore, I think, give some protection to wild birds over an appre- 

 ciably wide agricultural area. 



3. But as regards cantonments especially, the existing provisions are not 

 sufficient. The checking of sale will not stop soldiers, for instance, shooting in 

 the breeding season. This can be stopped best by a system of licenses— not to 

 be granted during close season. 



4. Without the information specified in para. 1, 1 can give no opinion regarding 

 the extension of the power to Local Boards. The conferring of such powers 

 would at least be popular in certain localities, for instance, in parts of Gujarat, 

 where Jain feeling is strong. 



