3 
to meet the recognized need for Watchers to protect the breeding- 
places of rare birds. They would be pleased to hear that Mr Milnes- 
Gaskell, besides his donation of jQ 25 to start a special fund for this 
purpose, had liberally sent a further sum of jQ 20 to assist it. Given 
the money, he saw no difficulty in establishing such Watchers; but 
even if the Society succeeded in carrying out its views it was most 
desirable that its hands should be strengthened by more effective 
action on the part of County Councils in dealing with the protection 
of rare birds and their eggs. As far as his own experience went, 
his chief difficulty was with the collectors, but he recognized that 
there were collectors and collectors. He himself had a collection 
of rare birds, but they were live birds, and not kept in confinement, 
and consequently they could not be prevented from sometimes 
flying away, and then becoming the prey of collectors in distant 
parts of the country. On one occasion, for instance, two Manchurian 
cranes were in eight-and-forty hours from the time of their escape 
“collected” in the north of Yorkshire, and a flamingo was after 
three days “ collected ” in Lincolnshire. 
Worse than the collector was the professional birdcatcher, whom 
he regarded with absolute abhorrence. They were a class of men 
difficult to get at, and he agreed with the opinion expressed in the 
report that unless the County Councils would utilize their powers 
of all-the-year-round protection, and the police would enforce the 
law, they would continue to pursue their trade with profit to 
themselves. 
This brought him to the important question of legislation. 
Modern legislation for the Protection of Wild Birds dated from 
1869. By the Game Act of 1831 many birds lost the protection 
which they had enjoyed under previous statutes ; the result was a 
wholesale destruction, which at last attracted the attention of Parlia¬ 
ment. To check the decrease, the Act of 1869 was passed for the 
Preservation of Sea Birds. From 1869 onwards a variety of Acts 
had been passed which were designed for the protection of birds; 
but they amounted to little more than successive experiments and 
successive failures. At the present moment statutory legislation on 
the subject was contained in the group of Wild Birds Protection 
Acts, 1880-1896, supplemented by the recent Acts of 1900 and 
1902. 
The effect of these Acts was to establish a close time, during 
which it was illegal to shoot or snare all wild birds. But the penalty 
was inadequate, and the provision did not apply to owners or occu¬ 
piers of the land (and their agents), on which the birds were found. 
A larger degree of protection was afforded to certain birds named in 
the schedules to the Act. The scheduled birds were protected by 
heavier penalties, and against the owner of the property or his agent. 
Eighty-six names of birds were thus scheduled, including 160 varieties. 
But it was to be noticed that, of the Order Passeres , only ten birds 
