4 
interest tlieir pupils, and in this connection he might mention that 
the Society’s Educational Series was most useful. Members of Field 
clubs might make careful lists of birds observed on their rambles. 
He hoped the new Bill would provide for the forfeiture of specimens 
or eggs illegally taken. 
Captain Chippindall Healey gave a brief account of his 
successful efforts on behalf of the birds of Hayling Island, where 
there was great apathy on the subject of bird protection. 
The Eev. Hr. Finch drew attention to the killing of birds and 
stealipg of eggs which went on in Kensington Gardens and Hyde 
Park, and urged that greater supervision was needed, especially during 
the absence of the keepers. 
Legislation. — The Bill* brought in by Mr. Bigwood, which is 
to give general protection to all birds, leaving County Councils 
to make their own lists of exemptions, was briefly explained by Mr. 
Montagu Sharpe, who said that efforts would be made to get the 
Bill passed during the coming session. Branch Secretaries could 
assist by forwarding a simple petition, signed by members of the 
Society and others, and sending it to their individual Member of 
Parliament, asking him to use his best endeavours to help the Bill 
through the House of Commons. Mr. Sharpe felt convinced that 
when once the Bill was thoroughly understood it would encounter no 
opposition. In the-present state of the law, rare birds might be shot 
simply because, being so rare, a County Council might not have 
scheduled them; the penalties were ridiculously small, far too small 
to be deterrent, and the difficulty of interpreting the statutes rendered 
prosecutions very troublesome, and inclined the rural police to have 
nothing to do with them. In America, Bird Protection Laws were 
much more stringent than was the case in England. 
Branch Meetings. —A short account of the meetings of the 
Higligate Branch was given by Miss F. A. Smith, in the absence of 
Miss Engeet. Quarterly meetings of the members and associates 
are held at their private houses, when the newest of the Society’s 
publications are read and discussed, and information is given as to the 
Branch’s progress. This is found to have an excellent effect in stimula¬ 
ting the interest of members in the work and keeping them in touch 
with the Society ; the leaflets have also been used as the subjects of 
Sunday School lessons. The attendance has increased at each meeting. 
Mrs. Drewitt suggested that what was done in Hampstead and 
Highgate could be done in any part of the country, and that such 
little informal meetings would be most useful. They wanted their 
Branch Secretaries to rouse a real interest in the work and not merely 
to collect subscriptions and then put the whole matter into a back 
place in their minds. If there was a ring of these meetings, books 
might travel round to be read, as was done in America, and more 
might be done by country secretaries, both in the way of giving 
Sunday School lessons and in starting Bands of Mercy. It was an 
* The Bill, as introduced into the House in July, 1900, contained one or two amendments 
from the print iu the Appendix to the Society’s Annual Report for 1899. A new clause has 
been added, giving’ the Home Secretary power to issue a list of exempted birds on the failure 
of the County Councils to make application to him. 
