BIRD NOTES 

 *nd NEWS. 



GTtrcular letter issxteti ^periodically by tlje itoiial 

 Society for tlje protection of |£iros. 



CONTENTS. 



The Law and its Critics. 

 Eoyal Society for the Protection 



of Birds. 

 Council Meeting. 

 Notes — 



Bitterns in England. 



Bare Birds. 



Educational Work. 



Birds and Boys. 



" Ospreys." 



Ostrich -farming. 

 Ornithological Congress. 



The Plume Sales. 

 Cage-bird Traffic. 

 Bird and Tree Day Festivals. 



Bedfordshire. 



Berkshire. 



Cumberland. 



Hampshire. 



"Westmorland. 

 In the Courts. 

 County Council Orders. 

 New Books on Birds. 



BITTERN 



No. 9.] 



London, 3, Hanover Square, W. 



[APRIL, 1905. 



THE LAW AND ITS CRITICS. 



S it altogether too much to ask of 

 those who in public print and at 

 public meetings criticise, commend, 

 or condemn Bird Protection law, 

 that they should learn what the law 

 of Bird Protection is? It might be expected 

 that a writer or speaker on a specific question 

 would spend half-an-hour in making himself 

 acquainted with his subject. Yet it is the ex- 

 ception rather than the rule to come upon a 

 speech or a newspaper article on this topic 

 which does not contain egregious errors in facts. 

 To say that the Acts are complicated, intricate, 

 unintelligible, is a commonplace of criticism. 

 Nevertheless, it is within the power of any man 

 of ordinary intelligence to grasp their general 

 outline in the course of half-an-hour's attentive 

 study, especially if aided by the " Summary"' or 

 the "Acts and Orders" published by the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds. 



Some of the more frequent errors reiterated 

 from day to day might be avoided if it were but 

 once understood that the statutory law deals 

 with Close Time only, and that even in Close 

 Time it protects, from landlords and tenants of 



land and their employes, no more than some 

 eighty or ninety species (mostly sea-birds and 

 rare species, with perhaps half a dozen fairly 

 common land-birds of recognized utility). 

 Everything else in Bird Protection law is left to 

 the option of County Councils. The protection 

 as against landowners and occupiers of any 

 further species than the eighty or ninety enumer- 

 ated in the Act ; the protection of any species 

 beyond the Close Time ; the extension of Close 

 Time ; the protection of any eggs ; the pro- 

 hibition of Sunday bird-catching during the 

 winter months ; are all matters for Home Rule 

 in the Counties. 



In face of this modest statute, the farmer 

 bewails the ruin of agriculture because "the 

 law " forbids him to destroy the " pests " 

 which devour his corn or fruit, or because 

 " the law " prohibits the small boy from serving 

 his country by bird-nesting. Chambers of 

 Agriculture rise up in wrath and demand the 

 repeal of restrictions that have never been 

 made, and the exemption from protection of 

 birds that are not protected. " In fruit-growing 

 counties," says one of the organs of the country 

 gentleman (February 18th, 1905), " starlings do 

 an enormous amount of damage to ripening fruit. 



