THE PROTECTION OF WILD BIRDS IN ESSEX. 45
necessary application to the Secretary of State, asking that the specified area as
determined upon, may be named as a protected area during the nesting season.
In the opinion of the Council of the Club the granting and enforcement of
such powers as are permitted under the Act would undoubtedly result in the pro-
tection and increase of the species of shore birds nesting within the area ; and, in
these days when Natural History is becoming the delight and recreation of the
many, it would also greatly tend to enhance the interest and pleasure of a visit to
the sea coast. Signed on behalf of the Council of the Club,
Wm. Cole, Hon Secretary.
This Petition was referred by the County Council to a com-
mittee appointed to consider the provisions of the Wild Birds'
Protection Act, 1894, of which Mr. Champion B. Russell, J.P. (son
of the late well-known authority on all matters relating to coast birds
of the county, the late Colonel Russell) is chairman, and after due
consideration the main provisions asked for were recommended for
adoption by the committee, and were sanctioned at the meeting of
the County Council on April 2nd last. Mr. Champion Russell has
written to us (under date July 9th, 1895) giving some interesting
details of the considerations which induced the committee to accept
the proposals, and also of the reception of the recommendations by
the Secretary of State, and he has kindly allowed us to quote from
his letter as follows :
" To begin, the Act of 1894 being permissive, the question came before
the County Council whether to adopt it or not. On the one hand, to do so
might seem like making a law which was in advance of public opinion, and
which could not be worked, especially in view of the bird-nesting traditions of
English boyhood, the difficulty of discriminating between the eggs of different
birds, and the systems of our educational authorities, which result in ignorance
though crammed with learning. On the other hand, the gradual extinction of
many rare and beautiful birds makes it almost criminal to omit any means of
protecting them, and the mere fact of their protection gives a public lesson in
Natural History.
" The recommendation of the Essex Field Club showed an excellent step
which appeared to be beyond cavil ; as shore-nesting being a less break-neck
business than tree-climbing has less attractions for boys, while the shore can be
easily watched ; indeed, we have an excellent force in the coastguards, who might
well undertake to prevent illicit bird-nesting on the coast.
" Thus it came that the County Council made application to the Secretary of
State, under Section 2 (3) of the Act, to declare the following protected nesting area,
viz.: —'The sea-coast, sand-hills, dunes, waste lands, foreshore, warrens, marshes,
saltings, situate between the sea and the land side of the sea-wall, embankment,
ditch, quick-fence, or other artificial boundary separating such lands from the
cultivated land ; the order to be in force for three years from the 15th day of
March to the 1st day of August in each year, and that the following reasons be
given for the application in accordance with the section, viz. :—That no harmful
birds breed in the areas specified, which are, on the other hand, the sole breeding