§ Lady TweedsmuirI beg to move, in page 8, line 25, at the end, to insert:
Provided that any close season so prescribed shall commence on a date not later than the twenty-first day of February and end on a date not earlier than the thirty-first day of August.Subsection (1) of this Clause enables the Secretary of State to add to or remove from the first four Schedules any wild bird. Subsection (2) enables him to prescribe a close season in regard to any wild bird so added. The close season so prescribed may be as short as the Secretary of State feels necessary, but that provision is illogical in view of the provisions of Clause 2 (6), part of which prevents the Secretary of State from prescribing a close season for birds in the Third Schedule shorter than is laid down in the Clause. The Amendment proposes to put this right by saying that the close season in Clause 9 (2) must extend from 21st February to 31st August, which is the shortest season prescribed in Clause 2.
§ Amendment agreed to.