RAPTORIAL
BIRDS.
REPORT OF THE RAPTORIAL
BIRDS
69 COMMITTEE.
This Committee, appointed at the December General Meeting to enquire into the economic status and treatment of certain Birds of Prey that occur in the County, after correspondence, met in Ipswich on 21 February. Present were M M . T . G. Powell (Chairman), Alexander Mayall, Rowley Elliston and George Bird. Individual reports of the Members of the Committee, on various Birds submitted for their consideration, were fully discussed and certain recommendations with regard to them were decided upon. The Birds Recorder was requested to embody these conclusions in a letter for circulation among the principal Game Preservers of Suffolk. This he did. The letter was presented at a second Meeting of the Committee on 1 March in Bury St. Edmunds Museum ; and approved at the subsequent General Meeting of the Society, held at the Cullum Library that day. The letter, duly circulated, is as follows—
(COPY)
SUFFOLK NATURALISTS'
SOCIETY.
Dear Sir.—In pursuance of the proposal of Lord Henniker, this Society's local secretary for the Eye District, At a General Meeting held in the Bishop's House in Ipswich on 1 December 1934, a Committee consisting of the undersigned Members was appointed to make enquiry into the economic status of the Birds of Prey, and a few other species in addition, that are found within the County of Suffolk. The feeling of this Committee is that, while certain of these Birds might be "justifiably slain," others might very fairly and advantageously receive a far greater measure of practical protection, at the hands of gamekeepers and others, than is at present accorded them. While it is true that the majority of the Birds of Prey are already legally protected, it is also common Knowledge that this protection is for the most part of a merely nominal nature. We feel that the repressive measures employed against most oi these Raptores, in the interests of game preservation, are carned too far; and that there are good reasons for relaxing them v ery considerably, or in some cases altogether.