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BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



which proved perhaps the most generally attrac- 

 tive of any of the sectional discussions. Mr. Digby 

 Pigott set the ball rolling with an account of 

 British Bird Protection laws from the time of the 

 Sea-Birds Act. The Act of 1872 was originally 

 intended to extend protection to all birds, but was 

 altered in Committee so as to cover only 79 

 scheduled species. The Select Committee, pre- 

 sided over by Mr. Auberon Herbert, recommended 

 that all birds should be protected from March 16th 

 to August 1st, reserving the rights of landowners, 

 and proposed to render illegal the sale of all birds 

 in Close Time, whether taken in this country or 

 not Lord de la Warr's Bill was the first to 

 propose the protection of eggs. The Act of 1880, 

 which superseded all previous enactments, very 

 properly recognized the rights of landowners in 

 fixing a general close time ; and Mr. Pigott ex- 

 pressed a desire to see this principle carried 

 further by making all eggs the property of the 

 landowner, who should have power to permit bird- 

 nesting or not, as he thought well ; foreshores 

 being made the property of County Councils. 

 The wisdom of protecting eggs had been greatly 

 debated, and personally he doubted its advisability, 

 seeing how close was the resemblance between the 

 eggs of various species. The worst flaw in the 

 Act, he considered, to be the absence of permit 

 or licence, to take specimens for scientific purposes ; 

 but the variety and complication of Orders made 

 under succeeding Acts led to great confusion, and 

 had rendered it impossible for him to tabulate the 

 state of protection in England at the present 

 time, as he had intended to do. 



Mr. Lemon (Hon. Secretary of the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds) followed with 

 a paper on "The Rationale of Bird Protection." 

 After indicating some of the main causes of the 

 diminution of birds — such as increased occupancy 

 of land, and consequent clearings and drainage, 

 bird slaughter for food, bird massacre for fashion, 

 game preservation, where it entailed the destruction 

 of all creatures not game, and collecting — the 

 speaker suggested that all advocates of bird pro- 

 tection might at least claim : — Protection for native 

 and indigenous species to such an extent as the 

 conditions of various countries required it ; pro- 

 tection during the breeding season, especially for 

 rare and diminishing species ; protection for 

 spring migrants, requiring co-operation among 

 nations ; prohibitory laws to control or prevent 

 the use of traps, poisons and snares ; regulations 

 as to the traffic in live birds. The summary of 

 Bird Protection laws, published in Bird Notes 



and News for July, showed that the subject had 

 had much careful consideration from legislators, 

 and that nearly every form of protection required 

 or desired had found support in one or more 

 of the Colonies ; but above and beyond restrictive 

 legislation public opinion and education must be 

 looked to for the encouragement of a friendly 

 feeling towards feathered life, and the inculcation of 

 some appreciation for a bird as a bird. Many 

 nations include bird-study in the curricula of their 

 schools ; this centres in the United States, in 

 some of the Colonies, and in parts of England, in 

 what might usefully become a national institution 

 in every country, viz., " Bird and Arbor Day." 



Sir John Cockburn spoke on the protection 

 laws of Australia, leaving with his hearers the 

 impression, due, perhaps, to the lucidity of the 

 speaker — that in simplicity, vigour and flexibility 

 these leave Great Britain some distance behind. 

 The Act comprehends birds in three schedules 

 (1) those protected all the year round; (2) those 

 having a close time ; and (3) an outlaw class with 

 no protection, rendered necessary chiefly by the 

 mistaken sentiment of English settlers in intro- 

 ducing familiar English species, such as the 

 sparrow and starling, for which the Australian 

 climate proved only too favourable. Any person 

 can set the law in motion, and in part of the 

 Colony the fines vary from £$ to ^25. 



Mr. Littler followed with some account of 

 things in Tasmania, where the good work done by 

 the Acclimatization Society is, he said, nobly and 

 ably seconded by the police. Wanton slaughter 

 of sea-birds, such as that of the terns, for millinery, 

 is unknown, and no native birds are allowed to be 

 sold at auction sales ; but further protection is 

 needed for the black swan. 



One of the liveliest discussions of the Congress 

 followed the papers. M. Herbert Gans, of Geneva, 

 spoke of the great and increasing diminution of 

 swallows, stating that so far as his own observation 

 went, the window-swallow had decreased 80 per 

 cent, in ten years ; where a thousand were formerly 

 seen on the plains near Geneva, there were now 

 not fifty. He considered it most unfortunate that 

 Great Britain did not give the great weight of her 

 influence by joining the International Convention, 

 in which case Italy would also probably have 

 joined. The swallow, the skylark, and stonechat, 

 were, he believed, becoming extinct in Switzerland. 

 Dr. Quinet, (Brussels) held, on the other hand, that 

 the diminution had been exaggerated, and also 

 that, such as it was it was due to the food conditions ; 

 if the birds could not find their proper food in 



