The Wild Birds' Charter Two dates of importance to English
bird-lovers are to be celebrated this summer. On May 17th comes into full force the Cage Birds Act. It is a thorough Act, for which the R.S.P.B. is to be thanked by us all. It prohibits all taking for sale and all sale of wild birds on a particular schedule, and the schedule is long. From July 2nd to the 7th, the eighth International Ornithological Congress will be held at Oxford. At the last English meeting (held 28 years ago) foreign visitors, who were many, peculiarly enjoyed a trip to the Bempton cliffs where hardy local birdsnesters disappeared on ropes over the edge of the cliff and came back with baskets of guillemots' eggs, blue, green or white, speckled, spotted or lined. It may seem unkind of bird lovers to take eggs ; but experience at Bempton throws a significant light on the strategy of bird protection. The colonies of seabirds there were dwindling rapidly owing to a promiscuous trade in eggs. As soon as this trade was legalized, but forbidden after a particular date in the third week of June, those engaged in the trade made more profit and the birds at once multiplied. I do not suggest the taking of early clutches, but in some years it would certainly benefit and increase several species, including grouse and mallard, if the earliest clutches were robbed. In dry, late and cold seasons hunger first and marauding crows and even rooks may prove fatal to eggs or young.
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