58 Protection of Birds. [tsf "juiy 



law, which we must now all help to carry out. The clauses in it 

 which are especially valuable are as follows : — " 6. In section nine 

 of the Principal Act — [a) ' Any person who buys sells consigns or 

 knowingly has in his possession house or control any flesh skin 

 feathers or other portion of any game or native game killed or 

 destroyed during any period in which such killing or destroying 

 was or is prohibited by this Act or by any Proclamation there- 

 under shall for every such offence be liable to a penalty of not 

 more than Five pounds and for every subsequent offence to a 

 penalty of not less than Ten pounds or more than Fifty pounds ' ; 

 (b) at the end of the said section nine there shall be inserted the 

 following sub-section : — ' (2) After the first day of January One 

 thousand nine hundred and eighteen so far as regards Egrets and 

 so far as regards any other native game specified in any proc- 

 lamation to be made Ijy the Governor in Council for the purposes 

 of this sub-section any person so offending shall be liable to the 

 like penalties as aforesaid whether such Egrets or native game 

 were killed or taken in Victoria or elsewhere.' " 



We are glad to notice that a similar provision is before the 

 Parliament in New South Wales. 



The Duchess of Portland presided at the twenty-seventh annual 

 meeting of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, held at 

 the Middlesex Guildhah on 12th March, 1918. The society's gold 

 medal was presented, through representatives, to Dr. Hornaday 

 and Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, for their successful efforts in forwarding 

 the treaty — the first international treaty for such a purpose — 

 between the United States and Canada for the protection of 

 birds migrating between those countries. This treaty protects 

 all bird-life between the Gulf of Mexico and the North Pole, and 

 has saved American farmers many millions of dollars, insomuch as 

 that hitherto the loss in crops destroyed by insects amounted in 

 the United States to 520,000,000 dollars. 



Mr. Butler, attache to the American Embassy, replaced Mr. 

 Page, who was unable to attend, and represented Dr. Hornaday. 

 In thanking the society for this distinction, awarded for the first 

 time to an American, he said that the news would be of keen 

 interest to all those interested in bird-life throughout the States. 

 He compared moths and insects to the enemy submarines, and 

 the birds to the aviators who watch and destroy them. 



Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, who was formerly a lecturer at Man- 

 chester University, and has since done so much by both speech 

 and pen for the bird-life of Canada, was represented by Sir George 

 Purley. 



Birds that do more harm than good, if there are such, are not 

 worth mentioning — their number is so small ; and it was suggested 

 that if farmers were made to understand this through chambers 

 of agriculture and farmers' unions from a materialistic point of 

 view, results would be more satisfactory than if the propaganda 



