BIRD NOTES Pino NEWS. 



IssucD C^uarttrlw bji tljc iloiial ^ocictj for t)jz protection of ^irtis. 



Vol. IV.— No. 1.] London : 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. [MARCH 31, 1910. 



THE STORY OF BIRD PROTECTION. 



PART I. 



IRD Protection in Britain ad- 

 : vanced for some time along two 

 distinct lines ; the first, a move- 

 ment for the safe-guarding of 

 native birds by legal measures, and the 

 second, a voluntary movement seeking to 

 check the destruction for millinery purposes 

 of birds of all countries. 



Legal protection is by a good many cen- 

 turies the older of the two, not only because 

 it has to do with the law of property, one 

 of the oldest and strongest of man-made 

 laws, but also because the " keeper's-gibbet " 

 style of headgear is itself a modem invention. 

 But legal protection for British birds is also 

 of very recent growth except as regards a 

 few favoured species. It is indeed reported 

 of King John that he enacted a law prohibit- 

 ing the taking of all wild birds throughout 

 his kingdom, but if any such Magna Charta 

 for birdland was ever devised, it must have 

 had an exceedingly short duration, and 

 nothing like it for beauty and simplicity has 

 since appeared on the Statute Book. The 

 early Acts were all Game Acts, dictated 

 solely by considerations for the profit or 

 pleasure of man. The birds under their 

 care were chiefly Pheasants and Partridges, 

 Falcons (for the benefit of falconry), and 

 Swans (the royal bird). Henry the Seventh 

 decreed a year's imprisonment and a fine of 

 4d. for the man who should take the eggs of 

 Falcon or Swan, even on his o\mi land. 

 Henry the Eighth made it a felony, with 

 the penalty of death, to take the eggs or 

 young of the Falcon from another person's 



land, and forbade the sale of Pheasants and 

 Partridges to anyone not of the royal house- 

 hold. The same reign saw also the first 

 legislation for the protection of wild fowl — 

 the first general Bird Protection law, and 

 practically the last until 1869. This was an 

 Act passed in 1534 fixing a close time from 

 May 31st to August 31st, during which wild 

 fowl might be taken only by certain methods 

 and by certain persons, under the penalty of 

 a year's imprisonment and a fine of 4d. A 

 heavier punishment was meted out to egg- 

 hfters, amounting to as much as 8d. for the 

 egg of a Shoveller Duck, Heron, or Bittern, 

 and 20d. for that of a Bustard or Crane. 

 The heavy penalty and the value attached to 

 eggs are notable as compared with modern 

 legislation, under which eggs were wholly 

 unprotected until the Act of 1894 was passed ; 

 while even the rarest species is still entirely 

 dependent on County Council Orders. In 

 other countries nests and eggs more commonly 

 share in the protection given to the birds 

 themselves. In Queen Anne's reign a close 

 or moulting-time from July 1 to Septem- 

 ber 1, was ordained for Wild Duck and other 

 water-fowl in all the broads, fens, and other 

 places to which they resorted ; and the 

 period was extended a month at either end 

 in 1737. 



When, however, the Game Laws of 1831 

 were passed, "game" was restricted in 

 meaning to a few species ; the Wild Duck, 

 Herons, and other birds previously included 

 in the term came no longer under the aegis 

 of the law, and wild birds in general were 



