BIRD NOTES pimd NEWS. 



Jfssueii <!$uarterltr b^ tlje ftojral Society for the protection of giros. 



Vol. III.— No. 3.] 



London : 3, Hanover Squark, W. 



[SEPT. 29th, 1908. 



THE WILD BIRDS PROTECTION ACT, 1908. 



HE Wild Birds Protection Act of 

 1908 is the direct and immediate 

 outcome of Mr. W. H. Hudson's 

 recent work on The Land's End. 

 In one chapter of this book Mr. Hudson 

 describes how the wild semi-migrant birds 

 which flock in winter to the westernmost 

 district of Cornwall are caught by means 

 of the " teagle." This is an instrument 

 consisting of small fish-hooks, winch are 

 made for the purpose and sold at a penny 

 a dozen, fastened by thread on to a string 

 and baited. Any birds that succeed in 

 breaking the thread and getting away, 

 carry the hook in their gullets and must 

 perish miserably. It would not appear that 

 humanity is much taught in Cornish churches 

 or chapels or schools, or that laws for the 

 protection of birds and animals have been so 

 far very successful in the duchy. In twelve 

 years the Royal Society for the Protection 

 of Birds have not been able to induce the 

 Cornish County Council to go beyond the 

 protection of the Chough's eggs in Bird 

 Protection Law ; possibly this may remain 

 on their bye-laws when all the Choughs 

 themselves are exterminated in Cornwall. 

 Sir Frederick Banbury has, however, seen 

 to it that fishing for birds shall at any rate 

 be illegal. The Land's End determined him 

 on the immediate introduction of the 

 measure, and he is to be congratulated upon 

 having achieved this success. The Act 

 provides that : — 



" Any person who shall take or attempt to take 

 any wild bird by means of a hook or other similar 

 instrument shall be guilty of an offence, and shall 

 be liable, on summary conviction, to a penalty not 

 exceeding forty shillings, and for a second or sub- 

 sequent offence to a penalty not exceeding five 

 pounds." 



The use of the "teagle" has been feebly 

 excused on the ground that, in some cases at 

 any rate, the birds are killed for food. As a 

 systematic method of taking birds it is 

 but a small part of the whole hateful busi- 

 ness of birdcatching — by traps, by lime, 

 or by means of braced and tortured decoy 

 birds — which a country, at last grown 

 civilized in its outlook on birdlife, will sweep 

 from its fields and lanes. Were the whole 

 truth about this trade realised, as Mr. Hudson's 

 book has enabled his readers to realise the 

 barbarities of the " teagle," there would be 

 few apologists left for its brutal followers. 

 Even under present conditions, it may be 

 safely said that Sir Frederick Banbury would 

 have had the feeling of a large proportion of 

 the nation with him if, instead of banning the 

 hook merely, he had boldly asked Parliament 

 to adopt that clause of the International 

 Convention for the Protection of Birds 

 which forbids " the construction and em- 

 ployment of traps, cages, nets, nooses, 

 lime-twigs, or any other kind of instru- 

 ment used for the purpose of rendering 

 easy the wholesale capture or destruction of 

 birds." 



All readers of Bird Notes and News will 

 be glad to have the portrait of Mr. Hudson, 

 which appears as frontispiece. One of the 

 first and firmest friends of the Society, Mr. 

 Hudson has been on its governing body 

 since the formation of a committee. His 

 interest has been untiring, and the leaflets 

 he has written for its publication have 

 brought to the front not only the general 

 question of Bird Protection, but the specific 

 evils of the plume trade, the pole trap, the 

 collecting craze, and birdcatching. 



