BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



11 



Within certain very narrow limits, however, the Egyptian 

 Government can legislate for all the inhabitants of Egypt, 

 with the assent of the General Assembly of the Mixed 

 Courts. I have the honour to enclose a draft Khedivial 

 Decree, which is now under the consideration of the 

 General Assembly, and which will, I trust, shortly 

 become law. I do not say that this measure goes as far 

 as could be wished, but it will, I hope, do some good. 

 After consultation with the various authorities concerned, 

 it was thought that, for the present at all events, any 

 more ambitious legislation would not, in all probability, 

 be operative in practice. 



"The results which will be obtained, should the new 

 law be passed, will be watched, and, if necessary, the 

 matter can be reconsidered at some subsequent period." 



The draft Decree is to the effect that, in order 

 to protect birds useful to agriculture, and also to 

 protect quails from the ill-treatment resulting from 

 their capture by nets and traps on the sea border 

 (i) the use of bird-lime is prohibited on all Egyptian 

 territory ; (2) the transport by rail or otherwise, 

 the sale, offering for sale, etc., of the birds known 

 under the general name of "bec-figues" is for- 

 bidden ; (3) the taking of quails by nets or traps 

 on Government land at a distance of less than 1000 

 metres from the border of the sea is forbidden. To 

 the three clauses of the Bill is appended a list of 

 protected birds, these including the various warblers, 

 nightingale, robin, bluethroat, redstart, wheatears, 

 whinchat, stonechat, shrikes, flycatcher, nightjar, 

 hoopoe, wryneck, cuckoo, and roller. 



Lord Cromer has further been good enough to 

 express his personal sympathy with the cause of 

 bird protection, and has evinced his interest by 

 becoming a Vice-President of the Society for the 

 Protection of Birds. 



NOTES. 

 News from Abroad. 



Various encouraging signs appear of the progress of the 

 Bird Protection movement in different parts of the world. 

 Reports from India and Egypt will be found in another 

 column. In the Malay States under British protection 

 an ordinance, entitled " The Animals' and Birds' Protec- 

 tion Enactment, 1902," has recently come into force for 

 the purpose of preserving the big game and the rarer 

 birds of the Malay Peninsula. The issue of licences to 

 shoot wild birds and big game is at the absolute discretion 

 of the British Resident, and the creation of reserves or 

 sanctuaries for wild life is contemplated, though none 

 exist at present. In Japan, a country in which wild birds 

 are but little molested, a Society for the Prevention of 

 Cruelty to Animals has been formed, one department 

 of which will deal with Bird Protection on the lines of 

 our own Society ; it was started by a number of influential 

 Japanese gentlemen, has its headquarters in Tokyo, and 

 has already enrolled over a thousand members. 



Report (1903) that through their representations the City 

 Council of Cape Town have framed regulations, which 

 have been approved by the Governor, dealing with the 

 landing and killing of sea-birds. The new regulations 

 empower a fine of ^5 or a month's imprisonment for the 

 landing or attempting to land of sea-birds, alive or dead, 

 at any other place than the fish jetty ; and for landing or 

 carrying on land any sea-bird in a maimed or injured 

 condition, it being required that any bird maimed or 

 injured in its capture should be immediately killed in as 

 humane a manner as possible. 



Prosecutions. 



The annual report of the Royal Society for the Preven- 

 tion of Cruelty to Animals, presented at the annual 

 meeting on July 30th, records that during the past year 

 127 persons were convicted for offences under the Wild 

 Birds Protection Acts. These were for infringements 

 of the law as to Close Time. In addition there were 

 ten convictions for cruelty to wild birds under the Wild 

 Animals in Captivity Act, comprising two for neglecting 

 to kill injured seagulls, one for suffocating a swift by 

 placing it in a pocket, two for immersing blackbirds 

 in water, and five for cruelly bracing decoy linnets, larks, 

 chaffinches, and sparrows. "It is sometimes alleged," 

 the report states, " that the Wild Birds Protection Act 

 is a dead letter, because of a prevalent feeling that it 

 is nobody's business to administer that statute " ; and 

 unquestionably a much larger number of convictions 

 might be obtained if lovers of birds would endeavour 

 to grasp the provisions of the law and of the local Order 

 in their own county, and would realise that anyone may 

 give information to the police, call upon offenders to give 

 their names and addresses, or take out a summons and 

 prosecute. The Society for the Protection of Birds not 

 being itself a prosecuting Society, has from time to time 

 to draw the attention of the R.S.P.C.A. to many cases 

 which might possibly be taken up with good effect directly 

 by our correspondents and placed in the hands of the local 

 police ; while there are certain classes of offences, such 

 as taking of eggs, which are outside the scope of the 

 Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 

 willing and powerful as it may be to help our cause in 

 cases of cruelty. 



Protection of Sea-birds. 



The Cape of Good Hope Society for the Prevention of 

 Cruelty to Animals announce in their recently issued 



In Committee. 



At the last meeting of the Committee of the Society for 

 the Protection of Birds it was decided that no essay 

 competition should be instituted this year ; and that 

 owing to difficulties in securing an adequate attendance 

 of those living at a distance no Conference of Branch 

 Secretaries should be held this autumn. The Bird and 

 Tree Challenge Shield Competition, which this year is 

 being held in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, West- 

 moreland, Berkshire, and East Yorkshire, is in 1904 to 

 be extended to Bedfordshire. As in all years after the 

 first the Society cannot be responsible for the prizes to 

 individual members of winning teams, it was suggested 



