32 



look after themselves. The number of thick hedges and woods 

 in this country, combined with the large amount of the land 

 given up to game preserving, enable innumerable small insect- 

 eating species to breed practically undisturbed.* These species 

 have no need of legislative protection in this country ; and, 

 with certain notable exceptions, we have but few small birds 

 which do require it. In spite of the criticism levelled at it, we 

 venture to think that under existing circumstances the Schedule 

 of our Act has not much wrong Mith it. 



The Paris Convention has a Schedule of the birds for which it 

 recommends absolute protection ; it also has a provisional 

 Schedule of noxious birds. These Schedules have, generally 

 speaking, formed the basis of the laws of such countries as have 

 carried out the obhgation they undertook in 1902 to bring their 

 laws into conformity with the terms of the Convention within 

 three years. 



The Schedule of species designated by the Convention for 

 special protection is however somewhat limited. The Cuckoo, 

 for instance, is mentioned for special protection in almost every 

 country in Europe in which there has been important legislation. 

 It is named not only in the Schedule to our Act of 1880, but also 

 in the Hungarian Decree of 1891 and in the laws of many of the 

 Federal German States ; it is particularly selected for protection 

 in the Belgian enactment of 1906, in the SaWss law of 1904, in 

 the amended Dutch law of 1880, and in the Spanish law of 1902. 

 Yet when we look for the name of the Cuckoo in the first Schedule 

 to the Convention, we search in vain ! 



Allusion has been made to the position in Germany, where the 

 Imperial Statute gives merely a list of noxious birds, leaving the 

 rest by imphcation to be protected as useful ; whereas most of 

 the Federal German States have their own independent laws 

 with list of species to be protected as useful. This leads to a 

 confusing result in many cases. For, as already pointed out, 

 some species are not included as " noxious " in the Imperial Act, 

 and are therefore impliedly worthy of protection as useful ; 

 but neither are they included in the Schedule of any federal law 

 as useful, and are therefore by imphcation noxious ! 



The American Model Law has no Schedule as it gives universal 

 protection except to game birds, which are otherwise provided 

 for, and to the Sparrow. This method requires, as already pointed 

 out, a definition or a list to show what is included in the term 

 " Game." Such comprehensive terms are apt to be too widely 

 construed ; we know, for instance, what a generous interpretation 

 our gamekeepers give to " vermin." 



* See Report of Select Committee appointed by House of Commons on 

 Wild Birds Protection, 1873. Appendix, pp. 188-193. 



