130 Vice-Presidential Address : L ,.f"jan. 



(/) The catching of birds with the " parexella," or, indeed, with any 

 other style of moving, movable nets, or such as may be spread on the 

 surface of the ground, in fields, on bushes and shrubs, or on roads. 



The Governments of the parties hereby contracting reserve to themselves 

 the right of prohibiting the catching of birds in any other manner, if the 

 reports of experts deputed by Austria, Hungary, or the Senate of the Italian 

 provinces prove that the methods in question are particularly destructive and 

 harmful to the birds of the respective territories. 



4. Recapitulation. Apart from the restrictions of 2 and 3, the catching 

 or killing of birds shall be permitted only in the following manner : — 



{a) From 1st September till the end of February, with guns. 

 {/>) From I 5th September till the end of February, in any other way not 

 prohibited. 



The sale of birds except during these periods shall be prohibited. 



5. Under certain conditions, by special request, if such request be justified, 

 the respective Governments may allow exemption from the regulations i, 3,. 

 and 4, in the interest of the furtherance Qf scientific research. 



6. As, according to i, the only object of this declaration is to protect 

 birds useful to agriculture, it goes without saying that 2-4 do not apply to 

 domestic or field farming, or to the farm-yard. 



Though the regulations of 2 and 5 do not apply to birds that, from an 

 agricultural point of view, are not decidedly useful or noxious, if the latter 

 are of some value as game, the respective Governments are inclined to take 

 measures to protect such species as game. 



7. The Governments of the contracting parties shall inform one another of 

 protective measures taken in their respective States, and shall give all 

 information that may be necessary or desirable. 



8. The Governments of the contracting parties shall use every etTort to 

 secure the collaboration of the other States. 



9. The present declaration shall be drawn up in two copies of identical 

 text, and signed by the Foreign Ministers of the respective parties, one copy 

 to be kept, after mutual signature, by each of the signatories. 



The following year (1876) the Austro-Hungarian Foreign 

 Minister saw in the foregoing declaration an excellent basis for 

 the extension of agitation to cover the countries of Europe, and 

 an appeal was first made to Germany and France, then to Switzer- 

 land, Belgium, Holland, Russia, Spain, and Greece. Progress 

 was slow, the majority of the Governments avoiding any binding 

 promise, and being apparently dependent on the attitude of 

 Germany, where the Reichstag was already considering the 

 draft of a bill to provide for the uniformity of the regulations 

 for the protection of birds all over the empire. All considered 

 that no decision could be arrived at pending the passing of that 

 bill. 



The first International Ornithological Congress, 1884, which 

 was opened by the Crown Prince Rudolph in person at Vienna, 

 gave another impulse to the cause of international bird protec- 

 tion. However, the only practical (or rather impractical, as it 

 subequently proved) result was the forming of a Permanent 

 International Ornithological Committee, with power to prepare 

 a carefully elaborated scheme for the next Congress, or any 

 other suitable occasion. In the meantime matters were kept 



