bird that came near liini, and took the eggs as well. The local 
gunners, who are accustomed to gather a few of the eggs for sale 
every season, told me this with great indignation, and were delighted 
to hear that these Terns would be included in the “ Sea Birds” bill. 
The marked success which has attended the passing of the “Sea 
Birds Protection Act,” as shown by a rej)ort published in 1871, and 
su])plementcd as it was, so opportunely, by the tax upon guns, 
has induced its promoters to lay before Parliament, in the present 
session, a bill “ for the Protection of Wildfowl,” including many 
birds that form “ a staple article of food and commerce,” and which 
should command a “close time,” therefore, for other reasons than 
the mere dictates of humanity. This bill, introduced by ifr. 
Andrew Johnstone, ISI.P. for South E.ssex, was read a first time in 
the House of Commons on the 15th of February, but its second 
reading is unavoidably postponed till some time in June. 
In the present bill, under the general term of “ Wildfowl,” are 
included Snipes, Woodcocks, and Plovers, with the various kinds 
of Wild Ducks that still breed in this countrj'^, and which, not- 
withstanding the eflects of drainage and cidtivation, would do so 
moz’e abundantly if left unmolested at the season of reproduction. 
The majority of these birds, coming partly under the head of game, 
have a recognisetl market value, and the considerable diminution 
in their numbers of late years, owing to their wanton destruction 
at the time when they have eggs and young, is a question affecting 
the community at large, and not merely the naturalist and the 
legitimate sportsman. I have elsewhere pleaded the cause of the 
Woodcock, which, though formerly recognised only as a migratory 
visitant to the Jforfolk coast, has in this, as in other English 
counties, shown a yearly increasing effort to establish itself as a 
resident, and the praiseworthy endeavours of many landed pro- 
prietors to encourage this teiadency require only such legal assistance 
as would be afforded by the bill. In some quarters remonstrance 
is of no avail. So long as the greed of certain sportsmen leads 
them to continue .snipe shooting into April, to kill every wood- 
cock that lingei-s in their coverts in spring, and to sacrifice even 
the wild duck that rises from her nest, only the penal clauses of 
