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BRITISH ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE.

known as 'small birds,' are decreasing throughout the United Kingdom generally.

"(7) Most small birds' are generally increasing in numbers, some remarkably so.

6

"(8) Setting aside sea birds,' which may now be considered safe, no birds have so much diminished in numbers as birds of prey and wildfowl.'

"(9) No law for the protection of birds of prey,' if passed, could at present be carried out.

"(10) A law protecting wildfowl,' if passed, could be carried out effectually, provided that the penalties are in proportion to the inducement to break it.

"(11) Wildfowl' form a group subject to great persecution on account of their marketable value, especially as articles of food; they are commonly killed (many of them because then more easily killed) long after they have paired and have begun to breed; they, besides, lie under the same disadvantage as do the few small birds' which are decreasing the diminution, namely, through agricultural improvements, of their breeding haunts; already many kinds of wildfowl,' which a few years ago used to breed frequently and regularly in this country, have ceased or nearly ceased from doing so; they are perfectly innocuous, consequently wildfowl' are eminently deserving of protection.

"(12) The principle of what has been called a black list, favoured by some persons, would be the most fatal step of all in bird protection, since it would discourage, if not entirely check, the healthy feeling which is steadily, if not rapidly, growing in favour of many birds which have long been persecuted."

We exceedingly regret that a number of Naturalists should have arrived at the conclusion that no law for the protection of birds of prey, if passed, could at present be carried out. With all due respect for their opinion, we beg to differ from them. The great utility of these birds is now acknowledged, and a

CLOSE-TIME FOR WILD BIRDS.

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feeling in their favour has taken root. We feel certain that any proposed enactment for their protection would not meet with the opposition that is feared. As our readers may like to know who are the gentlemen forming the Close - time Committee, we may state that the reports are usually signed by from six to eight names, including regularly those of the Rev. H. F. Barnes, formerly Vicar of Bridlington, Yorkshire, and one of the originators of an Association for the Protection of Sea Birds in that district; Mr. H. E. Dresser (Hon. Sec.), author of "Birds of Europe"; Mr. J. E. Harting, author of a "Handbook of British Birds" and editor of the Zoologist; Professor Newton, F.R.S., Cambridge University; and the Rev. Canon Tristram, author of "The Ornithology of Palestine," &c. Those whose names have also occurred, but less frequently, have been Mr. C. Spence Bate, author of "Sessile-eyed Crustacea;" Dr. Günther, F.R.S., head of the Zoological Department, British Museum; Mr. T. Harland, of Bridlington, another of the originators of the Sea Birds Protection Association; Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., author of "British Conchology;" Rt. Hon. G. J. Shaw Lefevre, M.P., now First Commissioner of Works; and Mr. T. J. Monk, a Sussex naturalist.

CLOSE TIME FOR WILD BIRDS.

Until within the last few years our wild birds were unprotected by the Legislature, except such as were included in the Game Laws; and even some of these had no close season. Now, however, by the Acts of 1880 and 1881, all wild birds are alike protected from March 2 to July 31 inclusive, except in St. Kilda. One section of the Act of 1880 authorises the extension or variation of the close season. The powers given have already been taken advantage of in some counties, such as Essex, Lincolnshire, Huntingdonshire, &c. The penalty for killing any bird in the following list is twenty shillings for each offence.

There is a farther penalty of ten shillings on offenders against the Acts refusing their names and addresses; and any wild bird not included in the above list may be shot by the landowner or his authorised representative.

A pair-a couple-a brace.-A pair is two united by nature (par); couple by an occasional chain (copula); and a brace, by a noose or tie. A pair of swans. A couple of hounds. A brace of partridges a pair is a male and female; a couple, two

Where killed.

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FORM OF SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL.

accidental companions; a brace, tied together by the sports-
man. He keeps a pair of pheasants in the hen roost. We saw
a couple of pheasants feeding on the bank. You shot a brace
of partridges.

Barren Pairs.-When the nest of a partridge happens to be
destroyed late in the season, the old birds remain together,
and are called a barren pair. However, it sometimes happens,
that what are called a barren pair prove to be both cocks-the
following appears to be the reason:-When, after pairing time,
two cock birds happen to be left in the same district, after the
animosity which accompanies genial desire has subsided, the
two male birds associate and remain together, if undisturbed,
until the following spring.-But barren pairs, whether male
and female or otherwise, never lie well, or in other words, are
much more difficult to approach than a covey. It sometimes
happens that four or five male birds associate, in which case
they are called Old Bachelors.