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pitiatory clause was, in tlie first instance, adopted, which would 
virtually have rendered the intentions of the small birds’ friends of 
little or no effect. 
“ The magistrates of any county at quarter sessions assembled may by 
resolution except any species of birds from the protection afforded by tliis 
Act, and such exception may apply either to the whole of such county or to any 
part or j)arts of it as the said magistrates may decide : Provided always that 
such exception shall he duly published from time to time in such manner as 
the said magistrates may tliink fit ; provided also, that such exception may 
be rescinded by the said magistrates at any court of quarter sessions held 
within such county ; provided also, that in all cases in which the magistrates 
shall have excepted any species of birds from the operation of this Act, and 
shall have subsequently repealed such exception, no penalty shall be inflicted 
under this Act unless due notice shall have been first given for not less than 
three clear months that such exception has been repealed.” 
Possibly the absurdity of such a provision in a wild birds’ pro- 
tection bill led eventually to the appointment of a Select Committee, 
with instructions to make such amendments m the bill as would 
be necessary under its altered title, and to include in the schedule 
such other birds as they might think desirable. At this stage of 
proceedings Mr. Clare ScAv^ell Eead, M.P., who, as a representative 
of the agricultural interest, had most properly been placed on the 
Committee, requested me to furnish him with a list of such birds 
as might without prejudice be added to the schedule, including of 
course those insectivorous kinds which render essential service to 
man, or those which, from their rarity or the beauty of then.' 
plumage or song, need special protection. Of the twenty names I 
selected, all but three (the blue, marsh, and coal tits) will be found 
in the schedule of tlie new Act. Many of them were proposed 
and carried by Mr. Eead himself, and naturalists are specially in- 
debted to that gentleman for the introduction of the bittern 
(strangely enough, omitted from the Wild Fowl Bill) and the 
beautiful, and therefore persecuted, bearded tit of our Norfolk 
broads. Looking at the schedule, however, as it now stands, it 
would be as difficult to explain why certain birds are included, as 
to find a satisfactory reason for the exclusion of others. Why the 
robin and the hedge-sparrow should need protectioii in this country, 
where small birds are not eaten as they are on the continent, 1 am 
at a loss to imagine; the robin more cs])ecially, over whom the 
