BIRDS, PROTECTION OF. The protection of birds has been rendered necessary by their excessive destruction in various ways, including: (a) reckless and ignorant destruction of these creatures as well as of their nests; (b) commercial destruction for the market; (c) trade in ornamental plumage; (d) inordinate collecting of skins and eggs, especially of rare species; (e) increase of towns and population, with draining of marshes, felling of tim ber, etc. The extinction of the passenger pigeon illustrates (a) and (b) . Fifty years ago it existed in millions throughout the United States, one town sending i 1,000,000 to market in 1869. In 1908 the last individual bird was taken. (c) Extermination of the egret and the white heron in certain American States, and of other finely plumaged birds in different parts of the world, brought about the plumage acts of America (1913) and of Great Britain (1921) and numerous acts and ordinances in British dominions and colonies. A combination of causes (d) and (e) are responsi ble for the loss to England of the great auk, spoonbill, honey buz zard, osprey, etc. ; and to other lands of equally notable species. Protection in Early Times.—A familiar verse in Deuteronomy which forbids the taking of the mother bird with the young is the first record of a law for the protection of birds. Biblical and classical allusions to the snare, the fowler and the cage indicate at what an early period men set about capturing birds for profit and pleasure. In ancient Egypt and India certain kinds, such as the ibis and the hoopoe, were held sacred, but this had no effect upon the treatment of birds in general. Conditions in Rome dur ing the decadence of the empire are recorded by Sulla, who de scribes the ornithons and aviaries where birds were fattened for the table or kept blinded as pet songsters. One establishment in Sabinum, he says, could supply 5,000 thrushes in one year. These things were the precursors of the roccoli for wholesale snaring of birds in Italy today, and of the netting of quails (amounting in one year to 1,000,000) in modern Egypt to supply European gourmets.
Protection was first afforded in the interest of sport or of the nobleman's larder ; game-birds became private property, and the earliest laws were framed for the purpose of reserving to the land owner the right of killing certain food-birds and of ensuring the safety of the falcon tribe for his sport. In Britain there were laws of this kind in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., providing for penalties, with heavier punishment for the taking of certain eggs. "For two thousand years," comments an Ameri can writer (G. I. Hartley), "the birds of Europe were considered the property of anyone who desired to take them. Only game birds were vouchsafed any protection, and they were reserved for slaughter by persons of rank." Recognition of the Economic Importance of Birds.—In the course of centuries a growing consciousness of the bird's place in the economy of nature was forced upon men's minds. The im minent peril to food-crops should vermin and insect pests get be yond human control became apparent. Upon an increasing knowl edge of this danger are based the great majority of protection laws in all lands. Practically all of these laws had their birth in the i9th century. Two definite lines of protection were thus set up and two theories of ownership in birds recognized; viz., the rights of individual owners and the rights of the community. In mediae val times the peasant looked upon birds mainly as inimical to his interests, or merely as a source of income and food. The thinking classes began in time to view matters differently; but lack of re search and of education by the State has left much of the old feeling with the country folk of to-day. "Birds are to be guarded against by the husbandman as being destructive," says the Penny Encyclopaedia of 1788. "It is now universally recognized that birds play a most important part in checking the ravages of various animal pests, particularly in the case of insects," writes Dr. W: E. Collinge (Food of Some British Wild Birds, 1927).
In all the great British dominions and colonies—Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and in India, legislation exists in the interests of agriculture, of ornithological science, and of the public in general. In Egypt much was effected under Lord Cromer and Lord Allenby. The great sanctuaries of Canada and Africa are comparable with those of the United States, a coun try in which bird protection has occupied a conspicuous place. In 1886 a model lai,v was drafted by the American Ornithologists Union, protecting all birds except game (otherwise dealt with) and the English sparrow. It has been adopted, with modifications, in many States. The first State law (for game) was passed by New York in 1791. Massachusetts forbade the "wanton destruc tion of useful and profitable" species as far back as 1818. The Biological survey (q.v.) is a leading factor in Federal bird preser vation. In 1913 Federal law gave interstate protection to migrants. In Asia, the only considerable work has been started by Japan, which is interesting itself in the preservation of its native birds. International Legislation.—Following national laws it be came obvious that international legislation was essential to pre serve migratory species. Various congresses advanced this con tention. In i9oo a convention was signed in London by seven countries for the protection of animals and birds in a wide tract of Central Africa. An elaborate international convention, follow ing a series of congresses, mainly at Vienna and Buda-Pest, was signed in Paris in 1902 on behalf of Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Monaco, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland. This, however, was intended to procure similar legislation through out Europe for protecting useful birds, rather than to create international obligation for the preservation of international birds. More significant was the treaty signed by Great Britain and the United States in 1916 for the protection of insectivorous species throughout Canada and the United States. Later, official confer ences have been held in Washington (1926) to check discharge of oil upon the sea, with the collateral effect of saving sea-birds from destruction; and in London (1927) for the better protection of wild fowl. Another effort to preserve migrating birds is the pro vision of perches on lighthouses upon migration routes on the English coast, by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and, by differing methods, in one or two other countries. Above and beyond laws and conventions has been the continu ous work of bird protection societies in many lands, associated with the provision of watchers and wardens to guard breeding grounds of rare species, and with the education of children and the public generally regarding the life, habits and utility of wild birds. The oldest of such societies appear to be the English R.S.P.B., founded in 1889, and the National Association of Audu bon Societies, founded in America in 1902.