346 REPORT — 1873. 



Report of the Committee, consisting of the Rev. H. F. Barnes^ H. E. 

 Dresser (Secretary), T. Harland, J. E. Harting, T. J. Monk, 

 Professor Newton, and the Rev. Canon Tristram, appointed for the 

 purpose of continuing the investigation on the desirability of esta- 

 blishing a " Close Time " for the preservation of indigenous animals. 



1. The apprehension expressed by your Committee in their last Report, as 

 to the probable effects of the Wild-Birds Protection Act, has been more than 

 justified by events ; for, so soon as that Act came to be applied, it gave almost 

 universal discontent, and your Committee have not found one person who is 

 satisfied with it. 



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

 the appointment of a Select Committee to consider the subject of the Protec- 

 tion 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 Report 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 will contain the following recommendations : — 



" (i.) That the protection of certain wild birds named in the Schedule of 

 the Wild Birds-Protection Act of 1872 be continued. 



"(ii.) That aU other wild birds be protected from 1.5th March to 1st 

 August, provided that owners or occupiers of lands, and persons 

 deputed by them, have permission to destroy such birds 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 bird from the protection 

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

 he think necessary to do so. 



" (iv.) That, for the sake of giving better protection to the swimmers and 

 waders, no dead bird, if such bird is mentioned in the Sea- 

 Powl Preservation Act, or the Wild- Birds 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 country or 

 said to be imported from any other country. 



" (v.) That any violation of this proposed Act, or of the Wild-Birds 

 Protection Act of 1872, be punished 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 5s. 

 for every offence after the first." 



5. Your Committee wish emphatically to condemn these recommendations 

 as a whole, and all but one of them separately, for the following reasons, 

 numbered as are the recommendations : — 



i. The great majority of the birds named in the Schedule of the Act of 

 1872 do not require protection, as has been shown in former 

 Reports 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 cer- 

 tainly do not want protection, rights would be continued to 

 owners and occupiers of land which would be denied to other 



