| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for the Preservation of Sea Birds. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 32 & 33 Vict. c. 17 |
| Introduced by | Christopher Sykes (Commons) |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 24 June 1869 |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
The Sea Birds Preservation Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 17) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It was the first Act to protect wild birds in that country. [1]
In 1868, Professor Alfred Newton addressed the British Association for the Advancement of Science on the "On the Zoological Aspect of the Game Laws". [1] In particular, he urged for protection of birds of prey and seabirds during the breeding season. The British Association appointed a committee to propose a close season. The committee consisted of Frank Buckland, Henry Eeles Dresser, William Bernhardt Tegetmeier and Henry Baker Tristram. James Edmund Harting was later co-opted onto the committee.
Newton's speech cited the destruction of seabirds on the Isle of Wight and Flamborough Head. Wide publicity of his speech led to public condemnation of the residents of Bridlington. Rev. Henry Frederick Barnes-Lawrence of Bridlington Priory held a meeting of local clergy and naturalists and formed the Association for the Protection of Sea-Birds. Barnes-Lawrence's Association had the support of Francis Orpen Morris, William Thomson, Archbishop of York, and local MP Christopher Sykes.
As with many animal welfare laws before 1900, the animals' safety was not the main reason for the act. Seabirds were useful to sailors to warn of land in bad weather. If a boat was in fog and the sailors could hear seabirds nearby then they would know that they were near land. If the population of seabirds declined then they would not have this early warning system. [2]
The act was introduced by Christopher Sykes (MP), Mr Clay and Mr Ward Jackson on behalf of the Association for the Protection of Sea-Birds. It was designed to reduce the effects of shooting and egg collecting during the breeding season. [1] It gave limited protection to "the different species of auk, bonxie, Cornish chough, coulterneb, diver, eider duck, fulmar, gannet, grebe, guillemot, gull, kittiwake, loon, marrot, merganser, murre, oyster catcher, petrel, puffin, razor bill, scout, seamew, sea parrot, sea swallow, shearwater, shelldrake, skua, smew, solan goose, tarrock, tern, tystey, willock". [3] [4]
Flamborough Head is a promontory, 8 miles (13 km) long on the Yorkshire coast of England, between the Filey and Bridlington bays of the North Sea. It is a chalk headland, with sheer white cliffs. The cliff top has two standing lighthouse towers, the oldest dating from 1669 and Flamborough Head Lighthouse built in 1806. The older lighthouse was designated a Grade II* listed building in 1952 and is now recorded in the National Heritage List for England, maintained by Historic England. The cliffs provide nesting sites for many thousands of seabirds, and are of international significance for their geology.
The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of birds (ornithology) around the world in order to understand their biology and aid their conservation. The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton, Henry Baker Tristram and other scientists. Its quarterly journal, Ibis, has been published continuously since 1859.
Alfred Newton FRS HFRSE was an English zoologist and ornithologist. Newton was Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge University from 1866 to 1907. Among his numerous publications were a four-volume Dictionary of Birds (1893–6), entries on ornithology in the Encyclopædia Britannica while also an editor of the journal Ibis from 1865 to 1870. In 1900 he was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society and the Gold Medal of the Linnaean Society. He founded the British Ornithologists Union.
Sir David Anthony Andrew Amess was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Southend West from 1997 until his murder in 2021. He previously served as MP for Basildon from 1983 to 1997. A member of the Conservative Party, he was a Catholic with socially conservative political views, and was in favour of Britain leaving the European Union.
Andrew Hartley Dismore is a British Labour politician who was the Member of the London Assembly for Barnet and Camden from 2012 to 2021. He previously was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hendon from 1997 until 2010.
The year 1869 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Johannes Gerardus Keulemans was a Dutch bird illustrator. For most of his life he lived and worked in England, illustrating many of the best-known ornithology books of the nineteenth century.
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet Buxton of Belfield and Runton, was an English Member of Parliament, brewer, abolitionist and social reformer. He married Hannah Gurney, whose sister became Elizabeth Fry, and became a great friend of her father Joseph Gurney and the extended Gurney family.
Henry Eeles Dresser was an English businessman and ornithologist.
Christopher Sykes was an English Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1865 to 1892. He enjoyed the "intimate friendship" of Edward VII when Prince of Wales and Alexandra of Denmark when Princess of Wales.
Francis Orpen Morris was an Anglo-Irish clergyman, notable as "parson-naturalist" and as the author of many children's books and books on natural history and heritage buildings. He was a pioneer of the movement to protect birds from the plume trade and was a co-founder of the Plumage League. He died on 10 February 1893 and was buried at Nunburnholme, East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
Wildlife law in England and Wales is the law relating to the protection of wildlife in England and Wales. Much of existing UK law dates from pre-Victorian times. Wildlife was viewed as a resource to be used; phrases such as "game" or "sporting rights" appear. Public opinion is now much more in favour of protection of birds and mammals rather than the landowners’ interests.
Henry Horrocks Slater was an English parson-naturalist who studied ornithology, entomology, and botany.
The Selborne Society or Selborne League is Britain's oldest national conservation organization and a registered charity. It was formed in November 1885 to "perpetuate the name and interests of Gilbert White, the Naturalist of Selborne", and followed the philosophy of observation rather than collection. Its object was the preservation of birds, plants and pleasant places.
The Association for the Protection of Sea-Birds was formed in the late 1860s by The Rev. Henry Frederick Barnes-Lawrence the incumbent at Bridlington Priory to stop the practice of shooting sea birds for sport, a practice which was legislated for in the Sea Birds Preservation Act 1869. As well as promoting the society in Yorkshire Barnes-Frederick also set up a branch in Ryde where he had been a Curate.
Henry Frederick Barnes-Lawrence was an Anglican clergyman, notable as the ornithologist who founded the Association for the Protection of Sea-Birds and with others generated the pressure which led to the 1869 Sea Birds Preservation Act.
A History of the Birds of Europe, Including all the Species Inhabiting the Western Palearctic Region is a nine-volume ornithological book published in parts between 1871 and 1896. It was mainly written by Henry Eeles Dresser, although Richard Bowdler Sharpe co-authored the earlier volumes. It describes all the bird species reliably recorded in the wild in Europe and adjacent geographical areas with similar fauna, giving their worldwide distribution, variations in appearance and migratory movements.
Henry Bright was a British Whig politician, MP for Bristol 1820–1830.
Birds described in 1872 include the Chilean flamingo, snowy egret, black-tailed crake, Cyprus warbler, Baikal bullfinch, Persian shearwater, red-fronted antpecker, Tibetan serin, Newton's parakeet and the orange fruit dove.
Birds described in 1893 include Attwater's prairie chicken, the Auckland rail, blue-winged racket-tail, black-winged petrel, Laysan albatross, Chatham petrel, Mauritius night heron, Mauritius scops owl, purple-breasted sunbird, violet-throated metaltail, white-bellied tyrannulet, Whyte's barbet and the white-bellied crested flycatcher.
