THE FIRST STEPS 
33 
Coburg in 1809 and that of the Grand Duke of Hesse in 1809. 
1837, which latter forbade the slaughter and sale of birds 1837 
specified by name — useful to agriculture and provided 
for the protection of nests and broods. 
The first to treat the question on a scientific basis was 
Edward Baldamus, the contemporary and friend of the great 
Naumann and of the Hungarian J. Solomon Petenyi, who, at 
Kothen, in 1845, presented a motion, that was „ severely 1845 
ignored",* to the first meeting of the German Ornithological 
Society. A year later, at the same place, the same motion 1846. 
was laid before the committee of the Saxon Economic Soci- 
eties, and was shelved. 
Ten years later — in 1856 — at the second General 1856 
Assembly of the German Ornithological Society, Baldamus 
repeated his motion, annexing a list of the useful and destruc- 
tive animals in groups: this too was unsuccessful. So it is 
only the material loss following on the excessive extermination 
of birds that has at last, in our days, justified the attitude 
of Baldamus. 
And now for the history of the International Convention. 
The first steps. 
Acting upon the initiative of the German farmers and 
foresters and the reports of the Royal Hungarian and Imperial 
Austrian Ministers of Agriculture, the Austro-Hungarian For- 
eign Minister, as a preliminary step, called upon the diplo- 
matic representatives of the Dual Monarchy to provide for a 
friendly reception of the cause of bird- protection by the respec- 
* Liebe und Wangelin, Referatum, 1891. Budapest: and cf. the docu- 
ments of the first International Ornithological Congress in the 1884 
issue of the „Schwalbe" ; appeared in a special reprint. 
Herman: Conv. for the Prot. of Birds. 3 
