THE FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE CONVENTION 
117 
The further progress of the Convention. 
„Re optime gesta", the delegates dispersed, each taking 
a copy of the draft of the Convention as accepted to his 
respective Government, with the minutes of the session and 
the appendices. 
And then began the rolhng of the rock of Sisyphus to 
the top of the hill, i. e. of course, to the top, if successful. 
Those States or rather Governments which did not wish 
to participate, withdrew: they were Great Britain, Holland 
and Russia. They could do so, seeing that the fact that their 
delegates had signed the minutes on June 29, 1895 did not 
bind the States and Governments to anything, as the protocol 
distinctly says that the draft shall be submitted to the ap- 
proval of the Governments, i. e. the final decision was 
reserved, 
Italy lost no time in declaring^ that, for the reasons i895. 
adduced by her delegate. Prof. Giglioli, acting under in- 
structions, first at the preliminary conference at Berlin and 
then at Paris, she could not accept the draft. 
There is no doubt that the withdrawal of Italy was a 
matter of great significance, seeing that, in that country, useful 
birds were not only not protected but were liable, and are 
still liable, to the most brutal methods of wholesale de- 
struction; and these birds were for the most part not native 
to Italy but merely birds of passage driven by the stress of 
the seasons to pass through that country, and therefore alien 
property as far as Italy is concerned. 
This conception is not expressed here for the first time. 
Wild birds are, unfortunately, practically „res nullius", especi- 
ally when, taking flight, they traverse zones to change their 
» For. Min. No. 36,540/U. Sept. 2, 1895. 
