Society for the Protection of Birds. No. 7 5 b. 
PROCEEDINGS 
AT THE 
ANNUAL MEETING 
OF THE 
jSocietiJ for 1 the proMoi) of BM$, 
1896 . 
IJfHE Annual Meeting was held at the Westminster Palace Hotel, 
London, February 20th, 1896. The chair was taken by Sir 
Herbert Maxwell, Bart., M.P., who was well supported. The room 
was crowded, and the meetiug was widely reported in the newspapers. 
Sir Herbert Maxwell in his opening remarks, after congratu¬ 
lating the Society upon the progress it had made during the year 1895, 
referred to the International Conference on Bird Protection held in 
Paris, in June of last year, and at which Sir Herbert with Mr. 
Howard Saunders were the representatives sent by Great Britain. 
Such had been the destruction of bird life in many parts of Europe, 
that the insect life, upon which they form a natural and efficient 
check, had increased to such an extent as to endanger the success of 
agriculture, and the object of the Delegates who met in Paris was to 
discuss what steps might be taken to arrest further destruction, 
and restore the balance between the bird police and the insect 
criminal class. It was found that the Government of Great Britain 
was the only Government in Europe which had already taken any 
steps at all towards the preservation of harmless, beautiful, and 
useful birds. The French Government in taking this step of calling 
attention to the necessity of protecting bird life in all lands gave 
evidence of two things :—Firstly, of its sympathy with some form 
of international legislation for the benefit of birds; and, secondly, 
that modern science had proved that isolated action on the part of 
any state is almost futile, for this reason, that so many birds are 
migratory, and it is of no use protecting the annually moving mass 
in one part, if they are to be destroyed in another part. It was very 
difficult to convince some of the foreign representatives of the great 
wealth of bird life that exists in our English woodlands. 
The second matter to which the Chairman called special attention 
