Supplement to "Bird Notes and News." — jlutumn No., 1919. 



THE BIRD PROTECTION LAWS. 



REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE. 



The summer (1919) number of Bird Notes and 

 Neivs suggested the main lines which might be 

 followed in the coming reconstruction of the 

 Wild Birds Protection Acts. Since its publica- 

 tion the Departmental Committee on the 

 Protection of Birds have issued their Report 

 and Minutes of Evidence. 



As long ago as 1903 the Royal Society for 

 the Protection of Birds asked for the appoint- 

 ment of such a Committee to inquire into the 

 working of the existing Acts. Frequent ex- 

 pressions of opinion by judges and magistrates 

 as to the unintelligibility of the law, continued 

 assertions that it is a dead letter, and the 

 excuse thus given for disregard of its provisions, 

 made such an inquiry imperative if Great 

 Britain is to keep pace with other countries 

 in such legislation, and to conserve the princijjal, 

 and invaluable, part of the wild life remaining 

 to her. In the words of the Society's Report 

 for 1913 :— 



" It has long been felt that the effect of the present 

 Acts, and the County Council Orders obtained under 

 them, is not wholly satisfactory, owing partly to 

 weaknesses in the provisions of the Acts, partly to 

 very numerous defects and obscurities in their phraseo- 

 logy, and very largely to the complications which 

 have arisen in the working of six interdependent Acts. 

 Added to this is the varied and occasionally erratic 

 procedure of local councils, and, above all, the fact 

 that the law has not been enforced in any general or 

 habitual manner and has failed to protect the rare 

 birds of the country." 



The Committee was appointed by the Home 

 Secretary (Mr. McKenna) in November, 1913, 

 and consisted of the following members : The 

 Hon. E. S. Montagu, M.P. (Chairman), Lord 

 Lucas, Parliamentary Secretary, and later 

 President of the Board of Agriculture (who was 

 killed in France while on active service) ; Mr. 

 Frank Elliott, of the Home Office (now Assistant 

 Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis) ; 

 Mr. E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Mr. W. R. Ogilvie- 

 Grant, Mr. (now Captain) Hugh S. Gladstone, 

 and Dr. Eagle Clarke (Royal Scottish Museum), 

 with Mr. Harold R. Scott as Secretary. 



The Blue Book. 



The Committee held fourteen meetings in 

 1913-14 for hearing evidence from the Board of 

 Customs and Excise, representatives of County 



Councils (Norfolk, Cheshire, Worcestershire, 

 Carmarthen), Chief Constables (Lancashire, 

 Berkshire, East Suffolk), the Royal Society 

 for the Protection of Birds (Chairman and 

 Hon. Secretary), Irish Society for the Pro- 

 tection of Birds (Mr. G. C. May), Central 

 Chamber of Agriculture (Mr. Rou,se Boughton 

 Orlebar), Society for the Promotion of Nature 

 Reserves (Hon. N. C. Rothschild), Irish Game 

 Protection Association, the R.S.P.C.A. (Mr. 

 Polhill), Association of County Councils in 

 Scotland (Mr. W. Berry, Prof. Arthur Thomson), 

 Fishery Boards, fruitgrowers (two), birdcatchers 

 (three), bird-fanciers (two), taxidermists (three), 

 and others, including Sir Herbert Maxwell, 

 Mr. R. M. Barrington, and Mr. J. R. B. 

 Masefield. 



The most interesting portion of the Blue Book 

 containing the Minutes of Evidence, however, 

 is contained in the appendices framed by Mr. 

 Scott, showing the legislation of other countries 

 and giving particulars of the ambiguities and 

 complications that have checked the operation 

 of the British law and foiled many of the 

 intentions of those who framed it. These 

 details, it may be said, include numerous 

 objections and difficulties brought to the 

 notice of the Home Office by the R.S.P.B., 

 whose experience both of the needs of the case 

 and of the working of the Acts is necessarily 

 greater than that of any other body, since 

 it has for over a quarter of a century specialised 

 on the subject, is unceasingly occupied with 

 the question, and deals with a mass of corres- 

 pondence that represents opinion on every 

 aspect of it. 



The Report. 



The taking of evidence was completed and 

 the Report drafted before the war, and the 

 work was concluded in two or three sittings 

 held this year, the Committee stating that 

 they have not thought it necessary to make a 

 fresh inquiry into the changes brought about 

 by abnormal conditions, since to a large extent 

 the changes will probably be of temporary 

 duration. 



The Report itself occupies 44 pages of a 

 White Paper issued on August 19th. It 



