3IR 



if 



D M 

 NEWS. 



aniat fetter issued periodically bjr tlje Stomig 

 iProtertion of girds. 



CONTENTS. 



[ntroductory. 

 rhe Story of the Society. 

 Annual Meeting, 1903. 

 Audubon Societies. 



ro. 1.— APRIL, 1903. 



County Council Orders 

 Plume Trade Figures f 

 The Buff-hacked Heron 

 In the Courts. 

 The Man with a Gun. 

 Lectures, 1903. 

 Picture Postcards. 



London, 3, Hanover Square, W. 



Sntrobuctorp. 



[EMBERS of the Society for the 

 Protection of Birds have been 

 asking for some time past for a 

 periodical publication through which 

 news of the Society's doings, to- 

 gether with items of general interest 

 to bird protectors, could reach them, 

 and in which the various activities of the branches 

 might be chronicled. Now that the Society has 

 entered upon the fourteenth year of its existence, 

 and has enrolled over 5000 associates and many 

 thousand members, the development of the work 

 seems to warrant the issue of such a leaflet, and it 

 is hoped that it will merit a kind reception. 



HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY. 



The Society for the Protection of Birds, 

 founded in February, 1889, "in the hope of 

 inducing a considerable number of women, of all 

 ranks and ages, to unite in discouraging the 

 enormous destruction of bird life exacted by 

 milliners and others for purely decorative pur- 

 poses" (to quote from the first annual report), was 

 not the earliest protest raised against this shame- 

 ful slaughter of brilliant and beautiful birds. 

 Perhaps the first strong impulse to the movement 

 was given by Professor Newton's memorable 

 impeachment of the women-wearers of seabirds' 

 wings at the British Association meeting in 1868. 

 A few years later the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, 

 now a life associate of our Society, in a letter to 

 the Times, censured especially the wearing of 

 humming-birds. A plumage league was sub- 

 sequently formed, of which the Hon. Mrs. Boyle 



Skfy 



' flv 



was an earnest promoter, and later still the 

 Selborne Society included the preservation of 

 birds among the many admirable articles of its 

 comprehensive agenda. 



The founder of the Society for the Pro- 

 tection of Birds was Mrs. R. W. Williamson, 

 of Didsbury, still a vice-president and hon. branch 

 secretary. It began very quietly as a society of 

 women only. The requirement, for membership 

 were merely an undertaking to observe the two 

 short rules and the payment of twopence for a 

 membership card. These lemain the conditions 

 of simple membership. S .modest and apparently 

 insignificant, indeed, was it that, in the second year 

 of its existence, when its headquarters were 

 removed from Manchester to London, it was 

 greeted with smiles of amuseme t rather than of 

 sympathy, and the little first report, with its few 

 pages and its balance-sheet showing an income of 

 £7 13s. 8d., was described in one of the London 

 weeklies as "a sparrow's housekeeping book." 

 The history of the baby associ ttion seems likely 

 to illustrate the old adage, so proudly cherished 

 by Lancashire folk, "What Manchester thinks 

 to-day England thinks to morrow " 



In 1891, when the Society could number its 

 adherents by hundreds only, the Duchess of Port- 

 land became president, and her Grace has ever 

 since manifested the warmest sympathy with the 

 work. In the same year Mrs. Edward Phillips, a 

 pioneer in the cause, took office as vice-president 

 and Miss C. V. Hall as treasurer. Among the 

 first branch secretaries were not a (qw whose 

 names it is pleasant still to find in the list, such as 

 Mrs. Suckling, Miss Allanson-Winn, Mrs. Cornish 

 Bowden, Mrs. J. Thornely, viiss Salisbury, Mrs. 

 Paterson, Mrs. Beacall, and Miss Beeching. In 



