Protection Acts in Great Britain and Ireland. 605 



illegal to kill him during the months he is not as a rule to be 

 found, legal as soon as he is likely to arrive. 



A few more illustrations will be sufficient to show the 

 confusion and want of system existing'. 



The general close time, fixed by the Act of 1880, is, as 

 already stated, from the 1st March to the 1st August, but 

 may be varied by Orders. 



In Cheshire and Derbyshire it has been extended to the 

 loth August ; in Herts to the 15th August ; in Essex to the 

 16th August ; in Bedfordshire, Durham, and the Isle 

 of Ely to the 31st August; in Devon and Dorset to the 

 1st September ; in Carnarvon to the 30th September ; in 

 Denbigh to the 1st October, and so on. 



In the home counties, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey, 

 a distinction is drawn between the parts of the counties 

 lying within and outside the metropolitan area. But within 

 that area there is no community of action either among the 

 counties themselves or with the County of London. 



Thus, within the metropolitan area, in Surrey 73 birds' 

 names have been added to the 1880 Schedule ; in Hertford- 

 shire 15, and in Kent 10. 



In the County of London itself the additions are 14. 



It might have been not mireasonably supposed that the 

 protection within the metropolitan areas of the several 

 counties would be more stringent than in the outlying dis- 

 tricts. This is by no means invariably the case. Thus, 

 in Hertfordshire, the Hawfinch, Tree-creeper, Nuthatch, 

 Heron, and Crossbill are scheduled for special protection 

 outside, but not inside, the metropolitan area. 



So, too, in Kent, some 13 birds unscheduled in the metro- 

 politan area are scheduled for the rest of the county. 



Again, in Hertfordshire, the eggs of Herons, Grebes, and 

 Crossbills are protected outside, but not inside, the metro- 

 politan area. 



It is, perhaps, as a protest against old superstitions and to 

 show that we have advanced since the days of our grand- 

 mothers, who thought it unlucky to injure a Robin, that 

 although the metropolitan protection Orders contain long 



