TH-E


Avicultural Magazine


BEING THE JOURNAL OF

THE AVICULTURAL SOCIETY

FOR THE STUDY OF

FOREIGN & BRITISH BIRDS

IN FREEDOM & CAPTIVITY



Third Series. —Vol. XIII.—No. 1 . — All rights reserved. JANUARY, 1922.



THE PROPOSED NEW BILL FOR THE


PROTECTION OF WILD BIRDS


Bv R. I. Pooock, F.R.S.


Many members of the Avicultural Society will remember that in

November, 1913, in response to a widespread and well-founded feeling

regarding the inefficiency of the existing law for the protection of birds,

Mr. McKenna appointed a special committee to take fresh evidence

and report upon the whole question. The committee of seven, of whom

three, the Right Hon. E. S. Montagu (the chairman), Mr. E. G. B.

Meade-Waldo, and Mr. W. R. Oglivie-Grant, are distinguished members

of our Society, held fourteen meetings, and examined many witnesses,

representing the fishery, fruit-growing, and agricultural interests,

as well as ornithologists, landowners, and other persons concerned in

the preservation, capture, and destruction of our wild birds. The com¬

mittee held its last meeting on July 28, 1914, and its arduous work

was practically completed when the outbreak of the European War in

August brought all such comparatively trivial matters to a standstill.

The continuance of hostilities delayed for five years the issue of the

minutes of the evidence taken before the committee, and of their

report based thereon. The former, however, was issued as a blue book,

and the latter as a white book in 1919, and subsequently a special

committee, with our member, Lord Grey of Fallodon, as chairman, was

nominated to consider the report before the drafting of a new Bill

on wild bird protection to be presented to Parliament.



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