26 



From what we have already said on our law of 1894, which 

 established protection for eggs, it will have been observed that 

 the offences which the County Councils may prohibit are 

 " taking " and " destroying." The penalty clause to Act, 

 Sect. 5, however, goes a little further, and adds to the list of 

 persons who may be punished anybody who shall " i7icite any 

 other person to take or destroy " the protected eggs. Many 

 people think it a pity that the Act did not go a step further still, 

 and, following the lines adopted in America, make it a punishable 

 offence to possess, sell or expose for sale or to exchange any eggs 

 illegally taken. At this suggestion the indignant, but un- 

 scrupulous, collector will perhaps exclaim : " That would mean 

 that if I put up my valuable collection for sale, containing 

 British clutches of the eggs of the Kite and other protected 

 species, which I have acquired at great trouble and expense, the 

 collection could be raided and the prizes seized and forfeited." 

 The reply of the equally indignant protectionist is : " Why not ? 

 It is a criminal offence to receive stolen goods, knowing tlaem to 

 be stolen ; why should a man be allowed to receive, possess or 

 perhaps make a profit by selling illegally taken eggs, knowing them 

 to have been illegally taken ? " Of course specimens of many 

 kinds of birds and eggs may be illegally acquired without en- 

 dangering the stability of the species ; the gravity of the offence 

 committed by the collector or dealer who has defied the law 

 varies according to the status of the species involved. In many 

 directions we think our law has extended protection quite un- 

 necessarily ; but, on the other hand, it is hardly possible to deal 

 out too severe punishment to the wretches who have helped in 

 recent years to reduce such birds as the British Kites, White- 

 tailed Eagles and Ospreys to their present pitiable plight. 



Under the Paris Convention one of the Articles* provides that 

 it shall be forbidden from the 1st March to the 15th September 

 to sell or offer for sale any of the birds mentioned in Schedule of 

 useful species. The importation and delivery and transportation 

 of these birds is also to be forbidden within the same dates. 

 Another articlef forbids the importation of nests, eggs and nest- 

 lings, their colportage or exposure for sale, their sale and their 

 purchase. 



1880) it was held to be no defence to prove that such birds had been 

 bought or received from abroad. (Whitehead v. Sinithers, 2 C. P. D., 

 553). This case was decided in 1877. Then came the Act of 1880, 

 under which it was held in 1881 that birds killed abroad could not be 

 exjiosed for sale in England after the 15th March by a person who 

 had bought them from a dealer in Leadenhall Market, who had 

 received them from abroad (Taylor v. Rogers, 50 L. J. M. C, 132). 

 * Article 5. f Article 3. 



