REPORT. 153 
applications received, the names of any members willing to speak and 
lecture, especially out of London, will be gratefully received. 
Many County Councils have taken advantage of the opportunity 
afforded to them of enforcing the Wild Birds’ Protection Acts, by obtain- 
ing orders to allow the Acts to become operative within their jurisdiction. 
The enforcement of the penalty is left to the local authorities, or to private 
persons, and members are requested to strive to see that the orders 
obtained are duly administered. 
In spite of all appeals to the contrary, the wearing of the feathers of 
birds, especially “ospreys ” and birds of paradise, continues to prevail. 
The number of beautiful and useful birds annually slaughtered for 
bonnet trimmings threatens, and in some cases has already accomplished, 
the e.xtennination of some of the rarer species. Yet, although it will 
scarcely be believed, women wearing ospreys attended this year a meeting, 
the object of which was to condemn the very practice of which they were 
guilty. In the face of this fact it seems almost hopeless to bring home 
to the minds of these ladies the decrease in the numbers of birds, caused 
by the practice in which they so heartlessly persist. 
The need of such a Society as ours is increasingly evident. From 
New South Wales, from Tasmania, from the United States we hear that 
the native fauna require protection, and that the aid of legislation has been 
invoked against the indiscriminate destruction which goes on. Unfor- 
tunately, it is not only in these countries that the land is being denuded 
of its animals as well as of rare plants and insects. Both the Norwegian 
Government and that of the United States have established sanctuaries 
with excellent results, and such a course is being adopted in other coun- 
tries. .A.S suggested last year, such refuges are highly desirable in 
England. No better sanctuary could be found than the New Forest, 
at present the happy hunting ground of sportsmen, botanists, and 
entomologists. 
■A. correspondent of the Times writes on this subject ; “ Possibly a few 
years hence the present craze for regarding everything wild as a proper 
subject for self-appropriation, for destruction or for the gratification of 
the vanity of the sportsman will have passed away, and our descendants 
will be wondering how we can have allowed a common inheritance to be 
lost by the selfishness of individuals. Surely the natural species of a 
country are as worthy of preservation as the west front of a cathedral or 
an historic monument ; for are they not older than all buildings or all 
history ? and alas when once destroyed can never be supplied.” 
Mr. C. W. Radcliffe Cooke, M.P., has asked the Society to assist him 
in the Institution of “Arbor Day” in England, for the double purpose 
of renovating Kentish orchards, and commemorating the long reign of 
the Queen. The institution of a fixed day in each year set apart for tree 
planting would, as it came round, remind us of a duty we owe to ourselves 
and posterity — to leave the land a little pleasanter and more fruitful than 
we found it If Arbor Day prevailed, trees would speedily grace the 
landscape where now the land is bare. From the utilitarian point of view 
it may be urged that the institution would benefit the nurseryman, and 
the small initial outlay would in the case of fruit trees be quickly repaid. 
The planting by children would give them a personal interest in arbori- 
culture and the ornamental appearance of their own village. 
In .America the observance of Arbor Day by the schools has been so 
successful that it has been suggested that a Bird Day, to be devoted to 
instructing the children in the value of their native birds and the best 
means of protecting them, might with propriety be added to the school 
calendar. Such a movement can hardly fail to promote the development 
of a healthy public sentiment towards our native birds, favouring their 
preservation and increase. 
