84 
HISTORICAT PART 
importance of international birds-protection and appealed to 
Austria and Hungary to take the necessary steps. His intro- 
duction was, consequently, historical and followed, step for 
step, the thread followed by this sketch. Thus he arrived at 
the „ Declaration" of 1875, with the accompanying protocol, 
and finally at the First International Congress of 1884 with 
its resolution: then he put the question, „quid tunc?" 
He anticipated the answer by quoting figures relating to 
the wholesale taking of birds in vogue in Italy; and then, 
comparing the Vienna resolution of 1884 with the „ Declar- 
ation" of 1875, proved that the latter contained all that the 
former did, while in point of details it went farther still and 
was therefore to be abided by as a ready basis, able to 
materially further the cause, if only from the point of view 
of opportunism. 
He admitted that the „ Declaration" was not the ideal of 
bird-protection, among other reasons, because it did not 
contain a schedule of the species to be protected: but in his 
report be could afford to ignore that fact, for a schedule that 
should be suitable for all countries could not be drawn up, 
as it would only render an agreement in principle more 
difficult. For that reason be presented the following reso- 
lution: 
„The Second International Ornithological Congress requests 
the Royal Hungarian Minister of Agriculture, in conjunction 
with the Imperial Austrian Minister of Agriculture and the 
Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, to take all steps necessary 
to the creation of an international convention for the protection 
of birds useful to agriculture. 
„As a basis, the Second International Ornithological Con- 
gress recommends the fundamental principles contained in 
the Austro-Hungaro- Italian „ Declaration" of 1875, signed on 
the one part at Budapest on Nov. 5, 1875, on the other at 
