50 Meetings of Section IV. 



scarcity pointed to probable early extermination, at the 

 same time by avoiding - unnecessary friction to retain the 

 sympathy and co-operation of the public, which he was pleased 

 to say they had to a great extent succeeded in doing. 



Dr. F. G. Dawtey Drewitt remarked that Mr. Digby 

 Piggott's history of the growth of the law on Bird Pro- 

 tection will be of interest to all ornithologists. On looking 

 through some letters written to him in 1868 by the Rev. 

 H. P. Barnes, the vicar of Bridlington, it was evident that 

 the first Act of Parliament for the protection of sea birds 

 was greatly due to him, and to his friend Commander Knocker, 

 and also that much of the support which the movement 

 received came from those who lived near Bridlington. And 

 that is not to be wondered at, for the sea birds at Flam- 

 borough Head were at that time in danger of extermination, 

 and sailors were complaining that they were no longer 

 warned off the rocks, as they had been, by the cries of the 

 " Flambro Pilots "—the Gulls. 



An association of subscribers of a small sum towards 

 expenses of preparing the Bill was formed, and a list pub- 

 lished in January, 1869, contains nearly 300 members. 



At Oxford at the same time three undergraduates started 

 a branch association, and obtained a large number of signa- 

 tures to a petition to Parliament in favour of the Bill, which 

 was to be taken charge of by Mr. Christopher Sykes, the 

 Member for the Riding of Yorkshire which included Flam- 

 borough Head. An association for such an object did not 

 appeal to all members of the University. It was dubbed 

 the new " S.P.G." and caricatures of its promoters as Gulls 

 ap23eared in the Oxford stationers' windows. Still the Asso- 

 ciation flourished, and contributed its mite to the cause of 

 Bird Protection. 



Dr. H. E. Gans, of Geneva, strongly urged the desir- 

 ability of Great Britain joining the International Convention 

 for the Protection of Birds useful to agriculture. With 

 Britain's influence behind it, the Convention might do 

 something to prevent the terrible destruction to Swallows 

 which is understood to take place in Italy and on the shores 

 of the Mediterranean. These migrants wintering in Italy 

 were said to be killed by hundreds of thousands for their 



