FRANCE. 



France is a country which has until recently done but little 

 practical work for the protection of birds, although she has taken 

 an important part in discussions on the subject. At the Inter- 

 national Conference which met at Paris in June, 1895, the French 

 Government presented a draft Agreement which had been care- 

 fully prepared for the consideration of the delegates of the various 

 Oovernments represented. This draft was taken away for 

 consideration by the delegates, and eventually formed the basis 

 of the Convention signed at Paris in 1902. Up to this time Uttle 

 had been done in practice to prevent the killing and taking of 

 birds, though laws on the subject existed, but since the date of the 

 Convention various decrees have been issued by the Prefects 

 of Departments for the protection of species useful to agriculture, 

 and the number of " garde-forestiers " has been increased. 



The chief law is that of the 3rd May, 1844, as amended by the 

 law of the 22nd January, 1874, by which it is provided that the 

 Prefects of Departments shall resolve and determine not only 

 the time for taking birds of passage (other than the Quail) but 

 also the names of the birds to be treated as migratory, and the 

 various methods of taking them.* The older enactment also gave 

 the Prefects a general power to make decrees to prevent the 

 destruction of birds ; while the latter law added the words : " ou 

 pour favoriser leur repeuplement." When the original measure 

 became law two Circulars were published by the Government, 

 dated the 8th and the 20th May, 1844, which show that even at 

 that time grave fears were entertained in some quarters as to the 

 result of the persecution to which the birds of France were 

 subjected. These circulars draw attention to the fact that there 

 were a large number of Departments where the increase of insects 

 was such that whole areas were devastated, and that this fact 

 was attributable to the destruction of birds. The position is 

 therefore this. It rests with the Prefects to publish local decrees 

 for the protection of birds, fixing at the same time (a) the dates at 

 which the shooting of migratory birds is to begin and end ; 

 (b) what birds are to be considered migratory ; and (c) what 

 means may be employed to destroy or take them. These local 

 regulations when enforced are construed very strictly. For 

 instance, it has been decided that authority to use a net for 

 taking birds of passage mil not justify the capture in that net 

 of a sedentary species. f Again, where a man has been caught 



* Article 9. 



f By the Court of Cassation, 26th July, 1897 ; reported in the Dalloz 

 Repertory, 1898, Part I, p. 89. 



