3728 The Zoologist — Octobee, 1873. 



2. In the House of Commons, Mr. Auberon Herbert moved and 

 obtained the appointment of a Select Committee to consider the 

 subject of the Protection of Wild Birds. 



3. Three members of your Committee, on being summoned, gave 

 evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons. 



4. The Eeport of the Select Committee of the House of Commons 

 has not, to your Committee's regret, yet been published, but your 

 Committee have good reason for believing that it wUl contain the 

 following recommendations : — 



" (i) That the protection of cei-tain wild bii-ds named in the Schedule 

 of the Wild Bii'ds Protection Act of 1872 be continued. 



" (ii) That all other wild bii-ds be protected h-orn 15th March to 

 1st August, provided that owners or occupiers of lands, and 

 persons deputed by them, have permission to destroy such 

 bhds on lands owned or occupied by them. 



" (iii) That one of Her Majesty's Secretaries of State be empowered to 

 except, in any particular district, any bml from the protection 

 afforded, either by the Act of 1872 or by the proposed Act, 

 if he think necessaiy to do so. 



" (iv) That, for the sake of giving better jirotection to the swimmers 

 and waders, no dead bhd, if such bird is mentioned m the 

 Sea-Fowl Preservation Act, or the Wild Bhds Protection Act 

 of 1872, be allowed, from 15th March to 1st August, to be 

 bought and sold, or exposed for sale, whether taken in this 

 coimtry or said to be imported h'om any other countiy. 

 " (v) That any violation of this proposed Act, or of the Wild Bhds 

 Protection Act of 1872, be pimished by the payment of costs 

 alone for the first offence, except under aggravated circum- 

 stances, and the payment of costs and a fine not exceeding 

 6s. for every offence after the first." 



5. Your Committee wish emphatically to condemn these recom- 

 mendations as a whole, and aU but one of them separately, for the 

 following reasons, numbered as are the reconunendations : — 



i. The gi'eat majority ^of the bii'ds named in the Schedule of the Act 

 of 1872 do not requh-e protection, as has been shown in former 

 Eeports of your Committee ; they therefore think that in the 

 present state of pubhc opinion it is inexpedient that such pro- 

 tection should be accorded to them. 

 ii. That for the sake of protecting other wild birds, most of which 

 certainly do not want protection, rights would be continued to 

 owners and occupiers of land which would be denied to other 

 persons : consequently the piinciple of pri-vilege, usually m"ged 

 as one of the strongest objections to the Game Laws of this 

 country, would be introduced into the proposed Act, which 

 would thereby be subject to the attacks of aU those who are 



