150 PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



prohibiting the taking of the eggs of the Bustard, Crane, 

 Spoonbill, and Wild Goose, have not saved those species 

 from extirpation in England, and a naturalist may well 

 doubt whether any law of that kind would have a bene- 

 ficial effect on any species whose numbers are now 

 dwindling ; but no one can doubt that if certain locahties, 

 judiciously chosen, were reserved as breeding places by 

 inhibiting in them for a longer or shorter time, as may 

 seem advisable, the molestation of all birds frequenting 

 them, a considerable number of species, the numbers of 

 which are surely decreasing, would thereby take benefit, 

 and this with proper precautions, without much risk of 

 mischief, which I believe the Bill in its present shape will 

 inevitably produce. 



Some of Newton's proposals for altering the Bill of 

 1893 are more fully stated in the following letter : — 



May 28, 1893. 



My dear Walsingham, 



I thank you for your letter of yesterday. I am 

 confident that my proposal for places of refuge will be 

 found practical. Take for instance the Wells " meals " 

 or sand-hills (mentioned in my" Notes "), where we are 

 at present put to some expense in protecting Terns' eggs, 

 and only succeed in doing so through the constant 

 supervision of Feilden. Here the " order " might define 

 the inhibited place as beginning, say, half a mile, or one 

 mile, from Wells Church, and then extending for two 

 miles along the coast, and 500 (?) yards inland from high- 

 water mark. Within that area all egging should be pro- 

 hibited, say, from the 1st or 15th day of May (so as to 

 leave time for the proper gathering of Plovers' eggs) to 

 the 1st July in each year. The same could be done with 

 any of the Broads ; take Hickhng for instance, including 

 Heigham Sound, almost the only breeding place of the 

 Bearded Titmouse and Ruff that is left. There the limit 

 might be 500 yards from the water's edge. Notice- 

 boards, or placards warning people of the inhibited area 



