90 
HISTORICAL PART 
must pause for a moment to consider, as a component part 
of the Second International Ornithological Congress, an extract 
of the address^ dealing with the extermination of our birds 
in the South, which Baron Hans Berlepsch kindly placed 
at the disposal of the Class for bird-protection. The inclusion 
of the same at this point is expedient, for, unfortunately, 
Italy has, to this day, been the real „ lapis offensionis" in 
the way of the accomplishment of the cause of bird-protection. 
Why this has been, will be explained below. 
Baron Berlepsch, the true apostle of rational bird-pro- 
tection, who can already boast of great success, journeyed 
through those Italian districts in which the extermination of 
birds is in vogue. Consequently his knowledge of the evil is 
first-hand. His address was perfectly objective. 
He is convinced that, though the continual decrease in 
birds is partly due to the destruction of the opportunities of 
nesting, the main cause is the wholesale bird-taking in practice 
in Southern Europe. 
His observations (1885 — 1890) extended to Switzerland, 
the whole of Italy, the South of France, the islands of Sicily 
and Corsica, Algiers and Tunis. 
In Switzerland and the South of France the wholesale 
catching of birds with nets is, indeed, prohibited : but shooting 
is permitted in the autumn months, a fact that is taken incred- 
ible advantage of. At this period we meet bird-shooters at 
every step, comfortably practising their sport beside the road 
on birds perched on trees planted there and telegraph wires. 
This „ sport" is engaged in, not by striplings, but by 
grown-up men who are actually proud of their bag. 
Berlepsch describes his meeting with a sportsman of 
this kind not far from Chiavenna: the latter proudly displayed 
^ Chief Report. II Scientific Part, pp. 179 seq. 
