BIRD NOTES pimd NEWS 



Jlssucii Cijuartcrlj bv tljc ilounl ^onetg for tlje protection of gtriia. 

 Vol. IV.— No. 8.] London : 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. [DEC. 21, 1911. 



THE STORY OF BIRD PROTECTION— YIII. 



HE history of the Act of 1886 

 indicates some of the difficulties 

 in the way of legislation on 

 behalf of Birds, legislation which 

 many people think must be easy to obtain 

 because it is manifestly needed. It has 

 been seen that the Bill for dealing with 

 bird-catchers, brought forward by Lord 

 Stamford at the instance of the R.S.P.B., 

 was opposed because it altered the law of 

 trespass and that it was withdrawn in 

 favour of Lord Jersey's Bill, which also 

 owed its origin largely to Mr. Montagu 

 Sharpe. 



The County Councils Association had 

 carried in January, 1895, on the motion of 

 Canon Rawnsley, a resolution in favour of 

 legislation granting all-the-year protection 

 to named species of birds. A committee 

 was then formed to enquire into and report 

 upon the action of County Councils ; it 

 consisted of Canon Rawnsley, Mr. Littler, 

 Q.C., and Mr. G. Dixon, of the Association, 

 with the help of the following ornitholo- 

 gists : Lord Lilford, Sir Herbert Maxwell, 

 Colonel Howard Irby, Rev. H. A. Mac- 

 pherson, Messrs. W. Warde Fowler, J. H. 

 Gurney, W. H. Hudson, W. H. St. Quintin, 

 Howard Saunders, Montagu Sharpe, and 

 T, Southwell. Mr. Howard Saunders and 

 Colonel Irby were asked to draw up a list 

 of British land-birds, showing their usual 

 food and demonstrating their utility (or 

 otherwise) to man, with other information 

 for the guidance of Councils. The report 

 was presented, with business-like prompti- 

 tude, in IMarch. In the statement giving 

 details concerning the food of birds, it was 

 estimated that two out of the whole list 

 were destructive ; one (the Rook) beneficial 

 but requiring to be kept down ; six to some 

 extent detrimental, especially to game- 

 preservers ; five to some extent detrimental 



in gardens and orchards ; and all the rest 

 beneficial or innocuous. Among the recom- 

 mendations of the report was the extension 

 of Close time to August 12th ; the protection 

 of the eggs of scheduled sea-birds after 

 June loth ; the publication of Bird Protec- 

 tion notices at all police and coastguard 

 stations, parish council offices, and elementary 

 schools ; and the addition to the Schedule 

 for all counties, of the Wryneck, Swallow, 

 Martins. Swift, Bearded Tit, Kestrel, Merlin, 

 Hobby, Buzzard, Honey-Buzzard, and Osprey. 



Meanwhile the Middlesex Council, through 

 their Vice-Chairman Mr. Sharpe, had framed 

 a Bill embodying the resolution of the 

 Association. This was introduced into the 

 House of Lords, on February 25th, 1895.. 

 by Alderman the Earl of Jersey, who ex- 

 plained how greatly Middlesex in particular 

 suffered from eruptions of the >Saturday 

 and Sunday '" sportsman," and how necessary 

 it was that Close-time should be extended 

 for certain birds beyond the breeding-season. 

 The form of the Bill, as it reached the 

 Commons, was identical udth the existing 

 Act of 1896, empowering Councils to prohibit 

 the killing or taking of particular birds or 

 the taking or killing of all birds in particular 

 places, during that part of the time (August- 

 ]\Iarch) to which the Act of 1880 does not 

 apply. A further clause proposed to repeal 

 the words in the Act of 1880 which limit 

 punishment for a first offence to a reprimand 

 and payment of costs. The Bill was passed 

 by the" House of Lords on ]May 29th, but 

 thrown out in the Commons. 



The measure was re-introduced by Lord 

 Jersey in the following April, with the 

 addition of two clauses from Lord Stamford's 

 Bill ; the one dealing with trespass in pursuit, 

 the other providing for the confiscation 

 of bird-catching apparatus. To illustrate 

 the need for strengthening the law, Lord 

 Jersey mentioned that from 1880 to 1894, 

 the Metropolitan Police District had not 

 furnished a single conviction under the 



