14 REPORT 1870. 



kinds of birds which, being largely used as food, are of great value to the 

 community, and are generally admitted to be entirely innocuous. At pre- 

 sent, very great numbers of Wild Ducks, of many species, Snipes, Wood- 

 cocks, Plovers, and other kindred birds are killed during the spring months, 

 even when in the act of breeding. The destruction thus effected cannot 

 fail to continue the ever-increasing diminution of these birds, if indeed it 

 does not promise, at no distant date, to result in their utter extermination. 

 Accordingly, your Committee are unanimously of opinion that protection 

 should be afforded by law, during the breeding-season, to such "wild fowl" as 

 these, in order to prevent that result ; while your Committee think that, 

 with protection, these birds may long continue to furnish, at other times of 

 the year, valuable food to the public, notwithstanding the changes which 

 some parts of the country are undergoing through agricultural improve- 

 ments and increase of the population. 



Your Committee respectfully suggest the reappointment of this Committee. 



Extract of a letter from H. L. Stevenson of Norwich. — " The beachmen at 

 Salthouse (Norfolk) are delighted with the new Act, as, through summer 

 shooters, their means of earning a few shillings were going fast. Only thi-ee 

 or four paii's of Lesser Terns nested there this year ; and, as the men reminded 

 me, ten years ago they had forty or fifty pairs at least. I am sure the 

 marshmen on the Broads would be equally glad of a close time there, as they 

 complain to me of gentlemen shooting Snipe into May." 



Extract of a letter from the liev. H. F. Barnes of Bridlitigton. — " With 

 regard to our Sea-bird Act, I am happy to teU you that here it has been very 

 effective. * * * It renders the birds, however, remarkably tame. They sit 

 on the cliffs only a few feet below the observer, and nod and bow in the 

 most amiable manner, as if all that breathed must needs be kin. Then, 

 again, they swim about the shore, on a calm day, like ducks in a pond. All 

 this may safely be set down to the degree of immunity they have enjoyed. 

 One noticeable and very valuable fact is, that they have bred (in small 

 numbers) this year at Flamborough, which they have not done for the last 

 twenty years." 



Captain Hadfield, of Ventnor, in a communication to the 'Zoologist' 

 (Jime 1870, p. 2184), has remarked on the " increase of the sea-fowl breed- 

 ing on the freshwater cliffs" since the passing of the Act. 



Report of the Committee on Standards of Electrical Resistance. The 

 Committee consists of Prof. Williamson, F.R.S., Prof. Sir Charles 

 Wheatstone, F.R.S., Prof. Sir W. Thomson, F.R.S., Prof. W. A. 

 Miller, F.R.S., Dr. A, Matthiessen, F.R.S., Sir Charles Bright, 

 C.E., F.R.G.S., J. Clerk Maxwell, FR.S., C. W. Siemens, F.R.S., 

 Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., Dr. Joule, F.R.S., C. F. Varley, Prof. 

 G. C. Foster, F.R.S., C. Hockin, M.D., and Prof. Fleeming 

 Jenkin, F.R.S. (Secretary). 



The Committee are unable to report any material progress during the last 

 year in the work which remains to be done, and beg leave to suggest that 

 this work may probably be more effectually expedited by the appointment 

 of several small Committees than by retaining the large but somewhat cum- 



