22 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



usr ucT uqT Notes, ucr ucr usr 



BIRD=CATCHING 

 AND BIRD=SELLING. 



The important decision in the Court of 

 Appeal as to the construction of clauses in 

 the Bird Protection Acts affecting bird- 

 catching and dealing, clears up a doubt of 

 Avhicli the trade have long taken advantage. 

 The decision is in accordance not only 

 with a common-sense reading of the statutes, 

 but also with the spirit and intention of the 

 Acts. This will be clear to all who have 

 studied the history of this legislation, 

 briefly sketched in the present number of 

 Bird Notes and News. Two points were 

 entangled in the case. In the first place 

 the dealers contended that they might 

 lawfully sell anywhere birds caught in a 

 county where they are not protected ; 

 that is to say, that sale or possession is not 

 in itself an offence (the receiver being a 

 totally different person from the thief). 

 In the second place they contended that a 

 County Council Order can deal only with 

 killing and taking and cannot touch posses- 

 sion or sale. The receiver is to get off 

 scot-free. By the first contention an un- 

 limited market would be open for the sale 

 of birds unless it could be actually proved 

 that they were caught in a place where they 

 are protected. Obviously it is almost im- 

 possible to prove where the birds on sale 

 in a shop were caught. Thus the clause 

 enabling poulterers to sell dead game was to 

 be made to cover the sale even in close time, 

 of live song-birds, and to nullify the efforts 

 of County Councils by permitting a market 

 for the very birds specifically protected 

 within the Council's own jurisdiction. By 

 the second contention a dealer might sell 

 (and a catcher might possess,though he might 

 not catch) any bird in autumn and winter. 

 In point of fact the trade tried to establish 

 that they are practically free to lay hands 

 on the whole of our bird population for their 



own purposes, save only scheduled birds 

 in the close season. Both contentions 

 failed ; no recently taken wild birds may 

 be offered for sale in a place where, and at 

 a time when, such birds are protected. 



THE CRY OF THE TRADE. 



This step may not seem to carry Bird 

 Protection much further. The opportunities 

 left to the trade are abundant, to say the 

 least. " Recently caught " birds only 

 are referred to, and inspectors and magis- 

 trates are aware how mysterious a rarity 

 is a newly-caught bird to a dealer. The 

 value of the judgment may be gauged, how- 

 ever, by the alarm of the persons affected. 

 Cage Birds (May 2 8tli) raises the wild 

 outcry that the " brutal result " of the 

 decision "jjuts a premium on bird slaughter." 

 If fewer wild birds are caught and caged, 

 the only alternative, it appears, is to catch 

 and eat them ; and " we may look for a 

 return to an era of savagery when the only 

 object of a bird will be its slaughter for eating 

 purposes." The bird might say that its 

 " object " was not either to be caged or 

 eaten ; but grammar apart, the view of bird- 

 life is characteristic. The secret of this 

 sudden sympathy with the lark comes out in 

 the following significant paragraph : 



" This is nothing else but the thin edge of the 

 wedge for the total ajolition of keeping birds in cages. 

 It mist be remembered that in the United States 

 they have made it illegal to keep any native 

 domesticated bird in a cage, and that it is not 

 lawful to catch or have in one's possession any 

 native wild bird, and this seems to be the legislative 

 tendency all over the world." 



GOLD MEDAL ESSAY 

 COMPETITION. 



A large number of Public Schools have 

 expressed interest in the Society's Gold Medal 

 Essay Competition. School Natural History 

 Societies have given the scheme a welcome, 

 and some interesting work is looked for. 

 Essays should reach the Society by the end 

 of September. 



