BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



43 



uer ucr Bird Protection Orders, uer ^csr 



The following Bird Protection Orders have 

 been issued since June 24th. 1908 :— 



Durham (County). June 25th. BCEFS. 

 Scheduled birds as in Order of 1896, compris- 

 ing the Bearded Tit, Swallows, Swift, Wren. 

 Wryneck, Buzzards, Falcons and Osprey. 

 Eggs as in last Order. Goldfinch, Kingfisher, 

 and Swallows protected all the year. All 

 birds protected on Sundays, Christmas Day, 

 Good Friday, and Bank Holidays through- 

 out county, except in certain named 

 parishes. 



Cardiff (County Borough ). September 

 9th. EF. Additions to long list of species 

 protected all the year. New list of eggs 

 protected. 



Merthyr Tydvil. September 9th. B E F S. 

 New Order. Buzzard, Golden Eagle, Pere- 

 grine, Kestrel, Kite, House Martin, Nuthatch, 

 Raven, Redstart, Siskin and Wren added to 

 the Schedule. Some twenty-six species pro- 

 tected all the year, and the eggs of these and 

 some other species protected. All Sunday 

 shooting and taking of birds prohibited. 



UCT UcT 



In the Courts. 



usr ^sr 



The Birdcatcher's Birds. — At Soham (Cam- 

 bridgeshire) County Court, on August 14th, Judge 

 Mulligan. K.C., allowed a professional birdcatcher, 

 George Fenn, fl 10s. damages and costs in an 

 action against the R.S.P.C.A., to recover the value 

 of three Goldfinches and a Yellowhammer which 

 the Society's inspector had seized and set free. 

 Fenn sent the birds in a box to the station on 

 May 1st, addressed to a man at Elswick ; defendant 

 seized it, and subsequently, with a constable, 

 set the birds free. Fenn was summoned for an 

 offence under the Wild Birds Protection Acts, but 

 declared that the birds had been caught in January 

 in West Suffolk (where they are not protected at 

 that time), and the case was dismissed, but without 

 costs. The judge said it might be very desirable 

 for the Society if it covdd, to obtain an Act of 

 Parliament declaring that Goldfinches, Skylarks, 

 and some other British singing birds were to be 

 deemed the property of the Crown, and making it 

 a misdemeanour to capture or injure or sell them 

 without a licence, but at present singing birds, 

 like bees, belonged to the ferce naturce. In the 

 present case, although the defendant's action was 

 well meant he (His Honour) must, as the law stood, 

 hold that it was wrongful ; that it deprived the 

 plaintiff of property, and that the plaintiff was 

 entitled to damages. 



' ; A Demoralising Business." — In fining Ed- 

 ward Sherring. of South Tottenham, for using 

 birdlime to take five Chaffinches at Chessington, 

 on June 11th, the Chairman of the Kingston-on- 

 Thames Bench said it was disgraceful that such men 

 should take these beautiful birds, and he wished 

 the Bench had power to send him to prison. It 

 was a demoralising business. The birds were in 

 a small cage and four died from exhaustion. 



Illegal Possession. — A disgusting case of 

 cruelty to an Owl was heard before the Southend 

 Magistrates on August 15th, when Joseph Pudney, 

 mail driver, was summoned for unlawful possession 

 of the bird, and a man named Fowler for cruelty. 

 Pudney said that when driving the motor mail 

 from Southend to Chelmsford lie saw a pretty bird 

 near the hedge and took it home, but found it such 

 a trouble that he gave it to Fowler. He described 

 it as a " White Eagle." Fowler was afterwards 

 found in the centre of a crowd by a public-house 

 with the bird on a bundle of newspapers, poking 

 at the gasping creature with a bamboo stick till 

 the blood came, and crying out " Come and see 

 the greatest freak in creation." Parker said he 

 was only exhibiting it to get a few pence, and 

 denied the poking. The Magistrates discharged 

 Pudney on the ground that although his action 

 was illegal, they did not think it contravened the 

 law, and refused costs to the R.S.P.C.A.. who 

 prosecuted. They fined Fowler 14s. only, for 

 " gross cruelty," because he probably acted in 

 ignorance, and was not cognisant of the Owl's 

 habits. 



[The Southend Magistrates evidently consider 

 that breaking the law is not contravening it, and 

 that to torture an Owl is excusable in' anyone not 

 acquainted with the Owl's habits. As Miss Clifton, 

 Hon. Sec. to the R.S.P.B., writes to the Essex 

 Standard, " it would scarcely need an ornithological 

 expert to determine that the endurance of tortur- 

 ing is not consonant with the habits of any bird 

 whatever."] 



Illegal Possession. — At Thrapston, on July 

 7th. William Atkins, shoe operative, was fined 10s. 

 each and 6s. costs for possession of four Nightingales. 

 — At Llandaff, on September 7th, two Cardiff lads 



