Volume 9 - Electric Scotland

THE WORKING OF THE WILD BIRDS PROTECTION ACT 7
have amounted to quite a considerable sum in the case of
the Tentsmuir Order alone
;
and undoubtedly this is an item
of expense which many Councils may be glad
to avoid incurring,
by the simple expedient of leaving the Act severely
alone. Might it not, therefore, be sufficient for the County
Authorities to be directed merely to promulgate the Order by
means of handbills displayed in the windows of police stations
'
within or near ' the protected area, or in some such simple
way The ? saving in expense would be considerable, and
would be all in favour of our cause.
It is also to be hoped that the Legislature will at the
same time increase the penalty as it may be, the ridiculously
inadequate penalty which is all that can at present be imposed
on an offender convicted of a contravention of any of
the Wild Birds Acts. Under certain circumstances a very
small fine may be all that is called for but if ;
anything
is to
be done to curb the marauding instincts of professional eggdealers
or of ignorant men with guns, both the transgressor
himself, and also any person who has solicited, or being his
employer has knowingly permitted him to do the wrongful
act, must be liable to a penalty much heavier than the
present maximum of i
per egg taken or per bird destroyed ;
and, as a matter of course, any eggs found in the possession
of an accused person, or the skins of birds he has killed,
should in every case be confiscated as a necessary consequence
of the conviction. There
are too many men whom
it is scarcely possible to persuade not to shoot every unusual
but interesting or beautiful bird they come across ;
and there
are gamekeepers who not only shoot down Owls and Buzzards,
Woodpeckers and Jays, without a shadow of remorse, but who
are encouraged by their employers to do so. One would
fain hope such men are less numerous than they were ; but,
be they many or few, may it soon be within one's power to
bring to bear upon them a force more persuasive than
argument.