BIRD NOTES pimd NEWS 



3lssue5 (guarterlg 1m the lloijal ^oriEtjr for the protection of §irbs. 



Vol. II.— No. 6.] 



London : 3, Hanover Square, W. 



[JUNE 24, 1907. 



THE BITTERN. 



BITTERN 



In the course of a lecture at Winchester on May 

 23rd, 1907, in connexion with the Royal Society 

 for the Protection of Birds, Canon Vaughan spoke 

 of the extinction of several species of British 

 birds, including the Bittern. Bisterne, near Ring- 

 wood, and Bitterne, near Southampton, were un- 

 doubtedly named after this bird, and many of its 

 bones were found beneath the foundations of 

 Christchurch Priory. The drainage of the fen 

 country reduced the numbers of the species ; the 

 collectors completed the task. Not many years 

 ago a Bittern built its nest in Avington Park, near 

 Winchester, but few persons had been, or were 

 likely to be, fortunate enough to see a live Bittern. 

 Almost every year the presence of these birds is 

 reported from some part of England, but rarely 

 indeed does one succeed in escaping the gun and 

 the taxidermist. 



NINE POINTS OP THE LAW." 



OSSESSION, according to the say- 

 ing, is nine points of the law ; and 

 the tacit recognition of this fact by 

 the law itself is the cause of some 

 of the most patent difficulties in the working of 

 the present Wild Birds Protection Acts. 



To take first the case of rare birds and their 

 eggs. Before 1902 the person who took a 

 scheduled bird or egg — that is to say, a bird or 

 egg the taking of which is absolutely and by 

 name prohibited in the Act or by the County 

 Order — could be fined at most twenty shillings 

 and costs for each specimen taken ; but he was 

 left in quiet possession of his prize, worth possibly 

 as many pounds as he had paid in shillings as fine. 

 Under the Act of 1902, framed by the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds, the Court 

 has now power to confiscate the booty ; and no 

 more valuable provision, so far as it goes, could 

 have been added. Possibly, however, even this 

 needs to be made more stringent by requiring a 

 declaration on the part of the convicted offender 

 that he is giving up the veritable bird or egg of 

 which he had illegally possessed himself. The 

 Society has recently received information that 

 in a somewhat notorious case a specimen 

 obtained from a dealer was actually substituted 

 and given up for the " British-taken " one in 

 respect of which the conviction was entered. 

 More will probably be heard of this matter, as 

 conceivably coming within contempt of Court. 

 But let us suppose that a collector has taken a 

 bird or egg without being discovered ; and dis- 

 covery is extremely unlikely, seeing that rare 

 birds do not breed where policemen, with the 

 Wild Birds Protection Acts in their pockets, 

 are on point duty ; and it is impossible for the 

 Society's Watchers to be at every nesting-place 

 (especially while the subscriptions to the Watchers' 

 Fund remains under fifty pounds per annum). 

 The collector is a "trading" collector, perhaps, 



