39 



is worse than useless if it is allowed to become a dead letter, 

 and not until the subject of the protection of birds is more 

 seriously considered in this country, probably not until it has 

 a department of the Board of Agriculture exclusively devoted to 

 it, as ought to have been the case long ago, are we likely to have 

 any organised system for bringing offenders to justice or for better 

 disseminating amongst those engaged in agriculture and horti- 

 culture reliable information upon a matter which touches them 

 far more nearly than they at present realise. 



PERMISSION TO TAKE SPECIMENS FOR MUSEUMS, Etc. 



However closely any country may preserve its Avild birds, 

 there can be no two opinions as to the advisability of making 

 exceptions in favour of bona fide collectors for museums or for 

 other directly scientific purposes. This fact has been widely 

 recognised for some time past ; we find provision made for the 

 scientific collector as long ago as 1837 in the laws of the Grand 

 Duchy of Hesse, and this matter was alluded to in the proceedings 

 at the International Economic Congress at Vienna in 1873, and 

 was the subject of Sect. 8 of the Declaration between Austria- 

 Hungary and Italy in 1875, to which allusion has already been 

 made. In countries where the law compels the attention of 

 children and students, as in S\^itzerland and Spain, to be dra-wTi 

 to the subject of bird-protection, reference to specimens must not 

 only be most useful but almost a necessity. In our oa^ti country 

 " Nature-study " has made considerable advance, and the value 

 of well-arranged museums is becoming recognised ; and yet our 

 law, with characteristic disregard of the claims of science, 

 permits of no exceptions in favour of the scientific collector. 



The Paris Convention* provides that authorities should have 

 power to grant exemptions from the enactments of the Con- 

 vention for scientific purposes in particular cases, after taking 

 all necessary precautions to prevent abuse of the privilege ; 

 and permits may be extended to the taking of \^dld birds for 

 breeding and keeping them in captivity. Permits to persons 

 with scientific objects may, as we have seen, be obtained now 

 under the laws of various European countries, for instance, in 

 Belgium, Holland, Hungary or Switzerland. 



It is somewhat surprising to find that about one-third of the 

 American Model Law is devoted to this subject, and its provisions 

 are very elaborate. Certificates may be obtained by persons 

 of fifteen years of age or upwards. Such certificates are to be 



* Article 7. 



