This Bill is proposed by way of complement to their action so that something effective may be done to protect this very desirable race of small birds. The Egyptian Government prohibit the netting of the quail during the breeding season, and the French Government, as regards Algeria and those parts of Morocco which they control, prohibit the shooting of them. The Egyptian Government and the French Government are both conscious of the danger there is to the quail, and they have passed legislation dealing with the matter. They are netted in Egypt and sent over in these large crates to this country-as many as a quarter of a million arrive here in the season-and they are sold in the London market. They are not then really fit to be shot or eaten, but they are netted in Egypt and they are shot in Algeria. The mating season is between March and June, and the quails come over to the cooler climate of Europe for that purpose. They are brought over in crates of fifty apiece just at the period when they would be mating. They very seldom come here, but in recent years a trade has grown up of importing these quails in large numbers alive. The eastern lot go across the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea to South Russia, the central lot go by Sicily and Italy, and the western lot go through Spain and France. It crosses the Mediterranean in three different directions. About the month of February it comes in flights down the Nile Valley or across the Sahara until it gets to the Mediterranean seaboard.

The quail, which is a small partridge, coturnix coturnix, spends its winter in Central Africa and its spring and summer in Europe. It is simply a Bill to prevent the total extermination in a comparatively short time of the quail, and I shall, if I can, in a few words explain the position to your Lordships. It is not what might be called humanitarian. There is nothing sentimental about the Bill. I understand that none of these Departments have anything to say against the Bill, and I hope your Lordships on this occasion will follow their good example. The Home Office is concerned, the Foreign Office is indirectly concerned, as well as the Board of Trade and, I believe, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Department of Customs, the Treasury, and, last but not least, the British Museum, so that it is not quite so simple a project as might appear at first sight. Even in a simple Bill of this nature many Government Departments in this country have to be consulted. It is also put forward in agreement with several foreign Governments who are concerned. It is put forward in the first instance on behalf of the British Section of the International Committee for Bird Preservation in agreement with the Zoological Society and many similar bodies which look after such matters in this country. My Lords, I hope this Bill will prove a non-contentious measure.

Bevy of quail