GOOD NEWS FOR WILD BIRDS. 
43 
exchange a harassed and uncertain family life in their old haunts 
for the peace and protection of the new enclosure. 
As might be expected, there is a good deal of diversity in the 
way in which various County Councils have looked upon the 
opportunity given them by the Act of 1894. Some have taken 
comparatively little notice, others have been inclined to rush 
blindly at the subject, and adopt all the forms of protection in 
their widest possibilities. This is where the advantage of the 
position occupied by the Home Secretary is seen. In the former 
case he can, it is true, do nothing, but in the latter he can 
exercise the useful discretion which he possesses. His power 
to decline to act on what appear to him ill-considered recom- 
mendations has been very properly exercised with the view 
of avoiding any unnecessary increase in the number of oppor- 
tunities for criminal offence, and has resulted in some measure 
of uniformity over the greater part of England and Wales. 
It may here be observed that in Scotland the power of making 
the Orders described above rests with the Secretary for 
Scotland, and in Ireland with the Lord Lieutenant ; but it is 
not proposed to set out here in detail the action taken in those 
countries, though the general remarks apply equally. 
We will give a short account of what has been done up 
to the time of going to press under each species of Order, 
but before doing so we must ascribe honour to those counties 
which lost no time in availing themselves of their new powers. 
Of the two dozen or more Orders which have been made up 
to the present time, eight were issued in time to be of some 
service for the breeding season of 1895, though it must be 
admitted that most of even these were too late to do very 
much good. Cornwall, Glamorgan, Oxford, the East Riding 
of Yorkshire, Norfolk, the parts of Lindsey, Lincolnshire, 
Westmoreland and Huntingdon, deserve credit for their prompt 
action. Of these it is only natural, seeing that the Act of 
1894 owes its existence largely to the agitation raised about 
the imminent extinction of the Cornish chough, that Cornwall 
should lead the way by obtaining an Order dated December 
12, 1894, declaring the taking or destroying of the eggs of 
this bird illegal. There, it is to be regretted, the enthusiasm 
of Cornwall seems to have ceased ; for no further steps on 
behalf of other birds have been taken in that county. 
As regards the variation of the close time, six counties 
have obtained extensions, viz., Bedfordshire prolonging it till 
August 12 — with a special extension of a month both ways 
for kingfishers — Cheshire adding twelve days at the end of the 
period assigned by the Act of 1880, the East Riding adding 
fifteen days in the same way, Hertfordshire widening it at both 
ends so as to reach from February 15 to August 15, London 
stretching it from February i to August 31, and Northampton- 
shire carrying it as late as September i, though making no 
change at the beginning. 
