NOTES AND NEWS. 39 



Peregrine Falcon, Raven, Ring Ouzel, Snipe, Swallow, Treecreeper, Water 

 Rail, Wagtails, Woodpeckers (all species), Woodcock. It is also ordered 

 that the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880, shall apply throughout the county 

 of Durham to the following species of wild birds : — Bearded Tit, Buzzards 

 (all species), Hobby, Kestrel, Martins (all species), Merlin, Osprey, 

 Peregrine Falcon, Swallow, Swift, Wryneck. 



The power granted to the Home Secretary for the affording of further 

 protection to birds and their nests and eggs, appears to be as follows : — (1) 

 Under section 8 of the Act of 1880, he may extend or vary the close time ; 

 (2) under section 3 of the Act of 1894, he may order that the protection 

 afforded by the Act of 1880 shall be conferred on any birds which he thinks 

 fit to include in his Order, just as if they had been originally scheduled to 

 that Act ; (3) under section 2 of the Act of 1894, he may prohibit by Order 

 the taking or destroying of the eggs of any specified kind of wild bird within 

 a whole county, or any part or parts thereof ; and (4) he may set apart 

 definite areas within a county in which it shall be unlawful to take or destroy 

 any wild birds' eggs for a specified number of years. 



Twenty-one counties have now obtained Orders of the third-mentioned 

 description and have promulgated lists of birds, the taking or destroying of 

 whose eggs exposes the culprit to a fine of one pound for each egg. These 

 counties are : — Bedfordshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Devonshire, Durham, 

 Essex, Glamorganshire, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, 

 the parts of Kesteven, London, Middlesex, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, 

 Oxfordshire, South Hampshire, Staffordshire, Warwick, West Suffolk, and 

 Westmoreland. The species protected in this way are chiefly those detailed 

 above, but the list varies in different counties, and Cornwall, it should be 

 mentioned, has obtained an Order especially protecting the eggs of the 

 Chough throughout the county. 



The new Bill drawn up for submission to the House of Lords by the 

 Society for the Protection of Birds, and entitled " An Act to Amend the Wild 

 Birds Protection Acts (Trespass in Pursuit)," has for its object the providing 

 of " summary means of suppressing a long-existing nuisance, caused by pro- 

 fessional bird-catchers and other unauthorised persons trespassing in pursuit 

 of wild birds with nets, guns and snares." It appears that, within the 

 Metropolitan Police District, this kind of bird-taking has long been " a cause 

 of irritation and danger to owners and occupiers of land, and the source of 

 much complaint." Clause 2 will provide that the Bill shall extend to the 

 Metropolitan Police District only — a radius of about 16 miles from Charing 

 Cross — a region which, more than any other, stands greatly in need of the 

 strictest protection ; but, following the precedent of the Act of 1894, it can, 

 when it becomes law, be adopted by the Council of any county or county 

 borough, and enforced by an order of the Home Secretary. The new Bill 

 " will not interfere with rook shooting or sparrow thinning.'' 



