PROTECTION OF BIRDS. 
Wild Bird Protection | and | Nesting Boxes, | with illustrations of various 
designs of boxes, | brackets, etc., that have actually been | used by wild 
birds for Nidification, | and a full List of the Orders made under the ‘‘ Wild | 
Birds Protection Acts” on the aa 5 of County Councils, with the 
names | of the mg geen | By | R. B. Masefield, M.A., By ve 
President of the North St siorashtie | Rina Field Club. | — | Lee 
Taylor Brothers, atates | 1897 [8vo, cloth, with wood engravings in a 
text and 9 collotype plates. Price §/.] 
WE English are now fully alive to the necessity and great desirability 
of protecting and encouraging our native birds, none more so than 
the naturalists whose out-door recreation is the observance of the 
habits, manners and customs of our feathered friends. This makes 
the appearance of the book now under notice very opportune. The 
title-page is so full that it leaves little need to explain further the 
scope of the work, so that we may at once proceed to discuss the 
four parts or chapters which compose 
The first part deals with ‘ Wild ea Protection,’ reviewing in 
ae es the history of legislation in relation to birds from 
th of the Carta Foreste of 1225 to that of the very 
eadeadia Wild Birds Protection Act of 1894. The sketch is 
necessarily but a slight One of a subject so full of interest that 
a detailed and exhaustive account of avian legislation from the pen 
of one who, like our author, possesses the necessary combination of 
qualifications for such a task, would make a most useful book. 
The second part, devoted to ‘Medizval Bird Laws,’ oo the 
Elizabethan Acts authorising the destruction of verm 
The third part is the principal one, and describes id illustrates 
by woodcuts various forms of boxes and other contrivances calcu- 
lated to give facilities for nidification and so encourage the increase 
of our bird population. So much can be done by those who have 
the opportunity, that all such suggestions as those given by our 
author will be joyfully acted on by many who would wish in their 
small way to emulate the example of Squire Waterton, in whose 
hospitable domain so many of the birds of the air found an inviolate 
sanctuary. The law facilitates this now-a-days, insomuch as it is 
now practically impossible to shoot our native birds, and it only 
remains for us to follow the example of Waterton and our author, and 
select from the various designs of nesting-boxes which Mr. Masefield 
describes and illustrates. We are indebted to the courtesy of the 
publishers for the opportunity of reproducing one of the illustrations, 
representing a composite or family nesting-box, which Mr. Masefield 
nds to be readily occupied by various small birds. Of course it is 
poo Bay means a new thing to provide these facilities, for a North 
pril 1897. 
