FROGGATT. O 



The original lines of investigation were as follow : — 



(1) To determine the food of birds of economic importance. 



( - ) To act as a court of appeal regarding birds charged with damaging crops. 



(3) To diffuse the result of this work and to educate the public up to the valua 

 of birds. 



Later Federal legislation took up the question of uniform game laws; and 

 several Acts were passed dealing with the whole of the United States . The three 

 most important were known as the Hoar Bill, the Teller Bill, and the I.acey Bill. 

 The first dealt with the protection of song birds, and was introduced by the Hon. 

 G. F. Hoar, of Massachusetts, in March, 1898, and became law the following 

 year. It was entitled "The Bill for the Protection of Song Birds." This Bill 

 did not pass Congress until 1899. As this legislation was aimed directly against 

 the feather trade, it met with considerable opposition from those interested in the 

 business . 



The next Federal Game Act was introduced by Senator Teller in 1899; the 

 Teller Bill aimed at regulating the traffic and shipment of wild game from one 

 State to another. 



The third and most important Bill passed by the Senate was that brought 

 in by the Hon. J. L. Lacey, and which finally became law in May, 1900. "An 

 Act to enlarge the powers of the Department of Agriculture, prohibit the trans- 

 portation by interstate commerce of game killed in violation of local laws, and 

 for other purposes." Two of the main clauses were those dealing with the re- 

 stocking of areas where birds and animals had been exterminated, and the power 

 to stop the importation of foreign birds and animals that could become serious 

 pests. As in other parts of the world, these Federal laws came into force too late 

 to save many rare birds; but under existing conditions, with the educational pro- 

 paganda that is being spread throughout the United States, with the appointment 

 of game wardens to enforce these Acts, and with the limiting of the number of 

 game birds and animals that every hunter or hunting party can shoot under the 

 terms of the licence to them, a great difference is being made in the security of 

 wild life in North America. 



Great Britain has not been behindhand in trying to stop the lawless and 

 wasteful destruction of wild life in lands under her protection . In Uganda, 

 East Africa — one of the last homes of the big game of Africa — stringent laws have 

 been enacted, and graduated licences issued to the Imperial officers, the natives, 

 and shooting parties from other countries. 



The Plumage Act passed by the British Government, entitled "The Importa- 

 tion of Plumage (Prohibition) Act, 1913," which came into force on the first day 

 of January, 1914, met with much opposition in 1909 from the London Chamber of 

 Commerce, and was criticised by the Board of Trade, the members declaring that 

 instead of stopping the wholesale slaughter of plumage birds of British-India, it 

 would only destroy the great feather trade of London, and drive it to the Con- 

 tinent . 



In a proclamation dated 17th of March, 1911, our Commonwealth Customs 

 prohibited the importation of the plumage and skins of fourteen groups of birds, 

 among them the Birds of Paradise and the Gouras or Crowned Pigeons of Papua. 

 This proclamation made much more effective an ordinance in force in Papua : "To 

 consolidate and amend the laws relating to the protection and collection of 

 birds," May 16th, 1911. 



A treaty for the preservation and protection of the fur seals which frequent 

 the waters of the North Pacific Ocean was signed at Washington on July 7, 1911, 



