OCTOBER 215 



The movement, a strictly practical one, not to be 

 attributed to any sentimental or humanitarian im- 

 pulse, took its rise in 1868 among German farmers 

 and foresters, who, perceiving the enormous increase 

 of injurious insects coinciding with a sensible decrease 

 in the number of birds, petitioned for international 

 action to stop the mischief. It took a long time to 

 persuade most of the foreign Governments that they 

 had any common interest to serve by concerted action, 

 but facts proved convincing in the end ; crops suffered 

 more and more from insect pests in proportion as the 

 birds which should keep these in check were perse- 

 cuted. At last, in 1895, there assembled at Paris, on 

 the invitation of the French Government, representa- 

 tives of seventeen European States to consider pro- 

 posals for international co-operation in the protection 

 of useful birds. Mr. Howard Saunders, Mr. Dundas- 

 Harford, of the British Embassy in Paris, and myself 

 were appointed to represent her late Majesty's Govern- 

 ment. A protocol was drawn up and agreed to by 

 the delegates of all the States represented, except Italy, 

 the same to be submitted for the approval of their 

 respective Governments, and that protocol contained 

 practically the provisions of the Convention, which was 

 finally ratified in 1902. 



From that Convention the Governments of Great 

 Britain, Holland, and Russia withdrew, although its 

 policy and provisions received the support of their 

 representatives at the Paris Conference. The chief 

 reason for Great Britain so holding aloof was that her 

 Parliament, by various Wild Birds' Preservation Acts, 



