19 



avoide destruction of wilde-fowle."* But our birds, apart from 

 those classed as game, did not obtain any protection from Parlia- 

 ment until the Sea-birds Preservation Act of 1869, f which has 

 since been repealed. 



Of the Statutes now in force, the Wild Birds Preservation Act 

 of 1880} is the earhest and in most respects the most important — 

 " the Magna Charta of British Birds," as it has been called. § 

 The provisions of this Act v.i.th regard to a close season are shortly 

 as follows : — 



It estabhshed a close time for all wild birds between the 1st 

 March and the 1st August. The Schedule which is appended to 

 the Act contains a hst of species in respect of which an infringe- 

 ment of the law is to be punished ^\ith a heavier penalty than in 

 the case of species not so included. 



The close time is established by the third section of the Act, 

 a section which is in some ways very curiously framed, as we shall 

 see later. It should, however, be noted that to a certain extent 

 it does not apply to owners or occupiers of land ; these persons 

 and their agents being at hberty to kill or take any A^ild birds 

 on their land, provided that they are not included in the Schedule. 

 It ^\ill be observed that the close time is " between " tlie 1st 

 March and the 1st August, not " from " one date to the other ; 

 so that neither of the two dates mentioned are included in the 

 period to which protection is extended. 



Po^^■er is given to a Secretary of State in Great Britain and 

 the Lord Lieutenant in Ireland, on the appHcation of the 

 Justices in Quarter Sessions assembled in any county, to vary 

 the close time ; but no power to alter or add to the Schedule 

 was given till an Act of 1894,|| though the small addition of 

 " Lark " was made to the hst of birds named in the Schedule 

 by a short Statute in the follo^\'ing year.^ 



The terms of the Convention of Paris do not extend to all 

 "species. Article 1 says : — 



" Les oiseaux utiles a I'agriculture specialement les insectivores 

 et notamment les oiseaux enumeres dans la liste No. 1 annexee 

 a la presente Convention laqueUe sera susceptible d'additions 

 par la legislation de chaque pays, jouiront d'une protection 

 absolue, de fa9on qu'il soit interdit de les tuer en tout temps et 

 de quelque maniere que se soit, d'en detruire les nids, oeufs, et 

 couvees." This was the recommendation of the Convention ; 

 the Articles wliich followed only suggested measures to be adopted 



* 25 Henry VIII., chap. 11. f 32 & 33 Vict., chap. 17. $ 43 & 44 



Vict., chap. 35. 

 § By Sir Digby Pigott, C.B., in a paper read at the Fourth International 



Ornithological Congress held in London in 1905. 

 11 57 & 58 Vict., chap. 24. ]| 44 & 45 Vict., chap. 51. 



