68 KNUBLEY : THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT CARDIFF. 
home for their holidays they could not be prevented from taking 
birds’ eggs. Mr. Pease’s bill proposed to render the destruction of 
wild birds’ eggs prohibitory under a penalty not exceeding 5s. each 
egg, and left action to county councils in England, and the magistrates 
and quarter sessionsin Ireland. They did not wish to pin themselves 
to the exact text of Mr. Pease’s bill, but they wanted some legislation 
for the better protection of wild birds’ eggs. He therefore moved: 
‘ That a Committee be appointed to take steps for ee legislative 
enactment for the better protection of wild birds’ e 
Mr. Mills was opposed to the resolution, pata | in his opinion, 
there were a great many birds which did harm. He thought that it 
was necessary for the welfare of the country and the preservation of 
game that such birds should be destroyed. 
rofessor Leipner said it was not proposed to include all birds in 
' the Bill; it left hberty of action to the county councils, and he was 
in favour of its becoming law 
Mr. Chisholm Batten cmnegaseil his belief that there would be 
some difficulty in getting the law efficiently carried out. 
Mr. Hanbury approved of the resolution, and said that some 
good would be done even if the law were only partially carried out. 
The Chairman pointed out that there had no doubt been an 
abuse, and it should, if possible, be checked. The proposal was as 
t 
councils and the justices, to whom he thought the proper adminis- 
tration of the law might very well be left. As it stood, the proposal 
did not appear to him to do harm to anybody’s interests, and it did 
not follow that because such a law might be in existence any person 
who took a bird’s egg would necessarily be fined 5s. 
Mr, Slater remarked that gamekeepers were in the habit of 
destroying birds of prey because the latter destroyed the game- 
The balance of nature was thus upset, and the small birds allowed 
to increase and to destroy the crops. 
Dr. Vachell said ag ee proposal to form a Committee had been 
seconded in Section D by Canon Tristram, who had _ strongly 
advocated three Bills which had passed through the House of 
Commons, and whose extensive practical knowledge of the subject 
was beyond question. 
The resolution was finally put to the meeting and carried with 
one dissentient. 
* The following is the resolution passed by the General Committee: ‘That Mr. 
Thomas Henry Thomas (Chairman), Dr. C. T. Vachell (Secretary), Professors 
W. N. Parker, Newton, and Leipner, Mr. Poulton, and Canon Tristram, be 4 — : 
Committee to consider proposals for the Legislative Protection of Wild Birds’ rds’ eggs.” 
Nai Nacursliet; 
