66 
HISTORICAL PART 
capercailly, the black grouse and the partridge with a close 
season lasting from Febr. 15 till Aug. 1 
E. HoMEYER reported that „in Japan the close season 
lasted from March 15 till August 15". 
Dr. Russ's second proposal: 
„ Considering that the question of bird-protection cannot 
be settled in the short time at our disposal, I propose that 
a permanent committee be appointed with instructions to 
prepare an accurately elaborated scheme for the next Congress 
or any other suitable occasion". 
Instructions. 
E. Baldamus reported that he was instructed only to 
elaborate a schedule of useful and noxious birds. 
Enrico Giglioli, the delegate of the Italian Government, 
announced that he had instructions to abide by the Declar- 
ation" of 1875; consequently he should not participate in 
any other decisions. 
These and other proposals naturally rendered it necessary 
to attempt harmonisation. After a long and very lively dis- 
cussion, and after the opportunist points of view had been 
exhausted, the delegate of Switzerland, Victor Fatio, hit 
upon the form in which a successful compromise was at last 
effected. The text of the same was as follows: 
„The first Ornithological Congress requests the Austro- 
Hungarian Foreign Minister to take steps for the creation of 
an agreement based on reciprocity or for the making of an 
international treaty which shall be binding on the States of 
the World ^ and shall enforce the following principles : 
I. The killing of birds in any other manner than with 
guns, the taking of the same, as well as the traffic in their 
' „Die Staaten der Erde". 
