20 



temporarily until the sweeping proposal contained in the first 

 portion of Article 1 could be carried into effect. 



" En attendant que ce resultat soit atteint partout, dans son 

 ensemble, les Hautes Parties Contractantes s'engagent a prendre 

 ou a proposer a leurs legislatures respectives les dispositions 

 necessaires pour assurer 1' execution des mesures comprises dans 

 les articles ci-apres." 



The parties to the Convention included Austria- Hungary, 

 Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Greece, Portugal, Sweden 

 and Norway and Switzerland. The Grand Duchy of Luxemburg 

 and the Principality of Monaco were also represented. In spite 

 of the Convention several of the signatory Powers have failed 

 to pass laws based on the principles they undertook to adopt. 



In 1886 a model law for the Protection of Birds was propounded 

 in America by a Committee of ten members appointed by the 

 American Ornithologists' Union. This model law, with slight 

 modifications approved by Mr. WilHam Dutcher, Chairman of 

 the Committee on Protection of North American Birds, was 

 adopted by the Audubon Societies, and its claim to the attention 

 of State legislatures was strenuously urged. As a result, it 

 has formed the basis of the laws which many of the States have 

 since passed.* It gives protection throughout the year to all 

 species, except the English Sparrow and game birds. f This has 

 the disadvantage of necessitating a statement of what are to be 

 considered as game birds. Such a statement is indeed discreetly 

 supplied by the law ; in practice, however, the definition is 

 apt to become somewhat widened. To give a single instance, 

 DoUchonyx orizivorus, the BoboUnk or Reedbird, which is 

 carefully preserved in the Northern States, is treated as a game 

 bird as soon as it makes its appearance further south in its 

 autumn plumage. It is there slaughtered for food in large 

 numbers, although it is no larger than a Sparrow. But the 

 matter does not end here, for enormous masses of other small 

 birds are at the same time indiscriminately killed, and are all 

 put on the market under the name of Reedbirds.J So the effect 

 of careful protection of a species in one place during its nesting 

 season may be thus nullified by the treatment received elsewhere 

 on its subsequent migration. 



We have therefore several examples of protection by close 

 season represented. First, that in Great Britain, limited in 



* Laws in many respects somewhat similar have also since been made in 

 various Provinces of Canada, e.g., British Columbia, Manitoba, New 

 Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Qviebec. 



t Sects. 1 and 7. 



% T. S. Palmer on Legislation for the Protection of Birds (Washington, 

 1902). 



