§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGHMy Lords, I venture to think your Lordships will have no difficulty in agreeing to the Second Reading of this Bill. Though a very small measure, it is of some importance from the naturalists' point of view. Your Lordships will see from the Memorandum attached to the Bill, that by Section 9 of the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880, it was provided that the operation of that Act should not extend to the Island of St. Kilda, on the ground that a large number of birds which are protected at certain times of the year are necessary to the inhabitants of this remote island for food and other purposes. But there are two birds in the Island, the fork-tailed petrel and the St. Kilda wren, neither of which are of any use to the inhabitants for the purposes I have indicated. The St. Kilda wren is of very great interest to naturalists, because it and the red grouse are the only two birds which are exclusively found in the British Islands. I think it quite possible that the red grouse may be of more general interest to your Lordships than the St. Kilda wren. There is no immediate danger, I think, of the extinction of the red grouse; but the St. Kilda wren is found only in the Island of St. Kilda, and I believe I am right in saying that people passing wider the name of naturalists have for the last season, or, perhaps, longer, taken away every egg which was laid in the Island. Obviously, if this sort of thing is allowed to continue, it must be only a question of a short time before the St. Kilda wren is extinct. It can do no possible harm to have the bird preserved, and I believe that everyone who has any interest at all in natural history will be anxious to see that so interesting, if so small, a specimen should be preserved from extinction. That is the whole purpose of the Bill, and I hope your Lordships will agree to read it a second time.
Moved, "That the Bill be now Read 2a."—(Lord Balfour of Burleigh.)
1438 On Question, Bill read 2a and committed to a Committee of the Whole House To-morrow.