140 PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



commented on by the journals at the time, and it made 

 a profound impression on the pubHc mind. In the 

 following year (1869) the Sea Birds' Protection Bill was 

 passed by Parliament. Thus it may be said that 

 Newton's paper at Norwich was the first stone in the 

 foundation of the many Wild Birds' Protection Acts 

 which have subsequently been passed. 



Shortly afterwards the British Association appointed 

 a Committee " for the purpose of investigating the 

 desirability of establishing ' a close time ' for the pre- 

 servation of indigenous animals." This Committee, of 

 which Newton was a member and over which he presided 

 for many years, took an active part in promoting the 

 earlier Bills for the protection of birds, and the members, 

 of whom the most prominent were H. B. Tristram, 

 J. E. Harting, and Newton, were frequently called upon 

 to give evidence and advice to the Committees of the 

 House of Commons. In 1872 a bill for the protection of 

 " Wild-fowl " was brought into Parliament at the in- 

 stance of the Close-time Committee, and so many un- 

 toward changes and chances befell it before it became an 

 Act that Newton wrote of it — 



" Save me from my foolish friends " ought to be a 

 stave in the spring-song of each fowl of the air from the 

 Nightingale which warbleth in darkness to the Dotterel 

 which basketh at noonday. The Bill, as at first proposed, 

 was framed entirely on the Sea-birds' Preservation Act, 

 which became law in 1869 and had already proved to be 

 a successful measure. The great feature of it was its 

 being directed to a definite point — ^the preservation 

 during the breeding season of those birds which, beyond 

 all others, were subjected to cruel persecution at that 

 time of year — ^thousands of Wild Ducks, Plovers, and 

 Snipes, being constantly to be found in the poulterers' 

 shops throughout the spring months, not only killed 

 while they are breeding, bat killed, it is not too much to 



