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Bird Notes and News 



INTERNATIONAL 

 NATURE-PROTECTION CONGRESS 



An International Congress to consider the 

 protection of Nature, including wild 

 life, natural scenery and reserves, was 

 held in Paris on May 31st and June 1st, 

 2nd and 3rd, 1923, the summoning 

 Societies being the Societe Nationale 

 d'Acclimatation de France, the Ligue 

 Frangaise pour la Protection des Oiseaux, 

 and the Societe pour la Protection des 

 Paysages de France. The general Presi- 

 dent was M. Louis Mangin, President of 

 the first-named body and Director of the 

 Natural History Museum of Paris, the 

 Secretary of the Organisation Committee 

 being M. R. de Clermont. 



A large number of countries were repre- 

 sented by delegates from one or more 

 societies, including most of the nations of 

 Europe (except Russia and Germany), the 

 United States and Japan. Mr. T. Gilbert 

 Pearson, President of the National Audu- 

 bon Association, was among those present, 

 and the Royal Society for the Protection 

 of Birds was represented by two members 

 of its Council, Mr. J. Rudge Harding 

 and ]Mr. Keith Henderson, another mem- 

 ber, Mr. Meade- Waldo, attending for the 

 Society for the Promotion of Nature 

 Reserves. 



The Congress was divided into jSve 

 sections, the first of which concerned 

 animal life and was presided over by M. 

 Jean Delacour, President of the Ligue for 

 the Protection of Birds, while others were 

 devoted to forests and the acclimatisation 

 of plant life, art and nature in regard to 

 town-extension, scenery and so on, 

 reserves and refuges, public parks, etc., 

 and the preservation of the landscape. 



Nature, in her three kingdoms, as 

 the prospectus of the Congress pointed 

 out, is menaced on all sides by the progress 

 of industry, and the caprice or the utili- 

 tarianism of men has placed many species 

 of animals and plants in danger of exter- 

 mination. Animals which should be pre- 

 served for their utility, their beauty or 

 their rarity, are destroyed and massacred, 

 some to the verge of extinction, and under 

 the cover of industrial progress trees 



and forests are removed and the most 

 picturesque scenery and most artistic 

 landscapes ruined. All the friends and 

 defenders of Nature, it was urged, ought 

 to unite and organise in order to make 

 their protests heard and to safeguard 

 for the future our inheritance in Nature. 

 Discussions in the various sections 

 were well sustained. A full report of the 

 proceedings is to be issued. Here it must 

 suffice to mention the very useful papers, 

 suggestions, and resolutions of Mr. Gilbert 

 Pearson (U.S.A.), Madame Schleimer 

 (Luxembourg), M. Gerrard de Pattere 

 (Hungary), M. J. Sztolcman (Poland), 

 M. A. Burdet, M. P. G. Van Tienhoven, 

 and M. J. Thijsse (Holland), in the Bird 

 section. Attention to the danger to 

 sea-birds through the discharge of oil- 

 waste on the sea, was dealt with in a 

 paper by Mrs. F. E. Lemon, Hon. Sec. of 

 the Watchers' Committee of the R.S.P.B., 

 who urged all Bird Protection Societies 

 the world over to convince their respective 

 Governments of the necessity for proper 

 scientific inquiry into the problem of how 

 to deal with this oil. The proposal was 

 strongly supported, the French and Dutch 

 delegates having personally witnessed the 

 dying miseries of some of the countless 

 sea-birds that are driven ashore hope- 

 lessly saturated with the filthy and 

 glutinous scum ; and a resolution was 

 adopted that, in view of the destruction 

 of birds and fish-spawn, and of the effect 

 on bathing-resorts : 



" Les pays maritimes consultent leurs corps scien- 

 tifiques pour tenter de trouver un procede pcrmettant 

 aux bateaux d'evacuer ou transformer leur restes 

 d'huile sans se borner a les deverser par dessus bord." 



The social side of the proceedings was at 

 least as successful as the business, the 

 hospitality shown making the gathering a 

 very pleasant one. On the last day of 

 the Congress, Madame Delacour received 

 the delegates at her beautiful old chateau 

 of Cleres in Normandy ; M. A. Chap- 

 pellier, M. de Clermont, the Prince Paul 

 Murat, the Marquise de Pierre, and others 

 assisted in making them welcome during 

 their stay in France. 



A general hope was expressed that 

 similar meetings may take place at least 



