21 



duration but universal in the species to which it apphes, subject 

 to the right of the owner and occupier of land to kill unscheduled 

 species ; secondly, that recommended by the Convention of 

 1902, unlimited in duration but hmited in its application to 

 species useful to agriculture ; and, thirdly, the close season of 

 the American Model Law, unlimited in duration and universal 

 in its apphcation to all species, except the EngHsh Sparrow 

 and game birds. The objection to the last form of protection 

 has already been touched upon : the recommendation of the 

 Convention, which has been adopted in Switzerland, Hungary, 

 Belgium and elsewhere, rests entirely on utilitarian principles, 

 is regardless of all claims to protection based on aesthetic or 

 sentimental grounds, and leaves a good many species unprotected 

 which we should be sorry to lose ; while our law is the most com- 

 prehensive so long as the close season lasts, but in a country 

 inhabited during the winter by birds much in demand for the 

 feather trade or for food, such a law as that of 1880 would not 

 by itself have the desired effect, for the end of the close season 

 would be the signal for the commencement of slaughter. 



TO NESTS AND EGGS. 



Much animated discussion has taken place and various opinions 

 have been expressed on the question of the protection of eggs and 

 nests. Many authorities say : " Protect only the birds, and 

 the eggs, or enough of them, will be hatched." Certainly it 

 would appear that if the choice merely lay between protection 

 of the birds on the one hand and protection of the eggs on the 

 other, preference should be given to the former course ; many 

 species are fairly common although their eggs have long been 

 largely taken. The old Levitical law said : " If a bird's nest 

 chance to be before thee in the way, in any tree, or on the ground, 

 whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon 

 the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the 

 young."* A very learned authorityf referring to the old Act of 

 1534, to which we have already alluded, has pointed out that it 

 made it a penal offence to take the eggs of Herons, Spoonbills 

 (Shovelars), Cranes, Bitterns and Bustards, though the parent 

 birds might be killed Avith impunity even in the breeding season. 

 All these species, except the Heron, have passed away from the 

 list of British breeding birds. 



The last record of the Spoonbill breeding in England is 

 probably Sir Thomas Browne's reference (1662, circ.) to their 



* Deuteronomy XXII., 6. 



t The late Professor Alfred Newton. Article " Spoonbill," Encycl. Brit., 

 XXII., 430. 



