The Swaixow. 



large numbers of Swallows are destroyed for food and 

 purposes of fashion.* 



The other reason for the paucity of Swallows in this 

 country is that they are sorely tormented by the ubiquitous 

 Sparrow, whose numbers have largely increased in late years. 

 The places where Swallows have been accustomed to build 

 are all occupied by Sparrows, whose pugnacity and over- 

 bearing spirit will not allow any other birds to come near 

 them. 



In the draft proposal for a convention formulated by the 

 International Conference on the protection of birds useful to 

 agriculture, held in Paris in 1895, when Great Britain 

 was represented by Sir Herbert Maxwell and Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, Swallows of all kinds were included in the 

 schedule of birds useful to agriculture, the destruction or 

 capture of which would be entirely prohibited at all times. 



The Swallow is not included in the schedule to the Wild 

 Birds Protection Act of 1880; but a special close time has been 

 prescribed for its protection in the counties of Brecon, Buck- 

 ingham, Durham, Huntingdon, Kent, Lancashire, Leicester, 

 Lincoln Kesteven and Lindsey, London, Middlesex, Staf- 

 ford, West Suffolk, Wilts, Worcester, and the Isle of Wight. 

 Its eggs are protected in most of the counties already 

 named, and in parts of Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, East 

 Suffolk, Norfolk, Northumberland, Surrey, Yorkshire East 

 Riding, and Orkney. 



* Dr. Carl Landsteiner, Provost of Moravia, who made an appeal dated Christmas, 

 1896, on behalf of harmless and useful birds, spoke of the incredible barbarity of 

 lying in wait for poor birds on their way to the warm south wearied by long flights, 

 and slaughtering them by the million. He stated that in the large cities of Italy, 

 huge piles of nightingales, larks, finches and swallows might be seen on the stalls of 

 the markets. 



