Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended)
Licence to permit the sale and exhibition of captive bred Mealy Redpoll.
Guidance Note: This licence permits the sale and exhibition of the Mealy Redpoll, the legs of which do not take standard rings.
Users must comply with the terms and conditions. Notes are provided as further advice.

Natural England in exercise of the powers conferred by section 16(1)(f), 16(4)(a) and 16(5) of
the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, as amended, (‘the Act’) and being satisfied that as regards the purpose set out at paragraph 1, there is no satisfactory alternative, hereby grants the following licence:
LICENCE
1) The purpose of this licence is to allow the sale of and/or the public exhibition for competitive
purposes of a captive-bred live wild bird of the species Carduelis flammea flammea, the Mealy Redpoll,

2) Subject to the terms and conditions below, this licence permits:
(a) for the purposes of any public exhibition or competition, at any place where competitions are held, the showing of the captive bred (as defined in 4 below) live wild bird listed in paragraph 1.
(b) (i) the sale, offer or exposure for sale, possession or transport for the purpose of sale; and the hire, barter and exchange;
(ii) the publication or the causing to be published of any advertisement likely to be understood as the buying or selling or the intention of the buying or selling; of a captive bred (as defined in 4 below) live wild bird listed in paragraph 1.

3) Failure to act within the purpose of this licence as set out in paragraph 1 or failure to comply with the terms and conditions below may mean that the licence cannot be relied upon and an offence could therefore be committed. The maximum penalty available for an offence under the Act is a level 5 fine (£5000) and/or a six month custodial sentence.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS
4) Any birds shown or sold under the terms of this licence must be ringed with a close ring, in a like manner to that prescribed in the Wildlife and Countryside (Ringing of Certain Birds) Regulations 1982 (SI 1982/1220), with a close ring, which is a ring or a band in a continuous circle (without any break, join, or any sign of tampering since it was manufactured) and which cannot be removed from the bird when its leg is fully grown. The ring must be a ring of size C, which has been issued by one of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs  Approved Suppliers i.e. the British Bird Council or the International Ornithological Association.

5) The bird must have been bred in captivity. A bird shall not be treated as bred in captivity unless its parents were lawfully in captivity when the egg from which it hatched was laid.  WMLGen-L18 (12/07) Page 2 of 2
Documentary evidence of captive breeding must accompany any sale, hire, barter and exchange.

6) The owner of any bird to be sold or competitively shown under this licence will, if requested by an Official of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, or a Police Officer, make the bird available for a sample of blood to be taken from the bird to be shown. The blood sample will be taken by a qualified veterinary surgeon. Such a sample may be used to establish the ancestry of the bird.

7) This licence is valid in England, unless previously revoked, for the period from 01 January 2008 to 31 December 2008.

Definitions
“Wild Bird” is defined in Section 27 of the 1981 Act as “any bird of a kind which is ordinarily resident in, or is a visitor to, the European Territory of any member State in a wild state”.
Edward Blane for and on behalf of Natural England
1 January 2008
Wildlife Licensing Unit
Natural England
Burghill Road, Westbury-on-Trym
Bristol BS10 6NJ
T 0845 601 4523 F 0845 601 3438
Email wildlife@naturalengland.org.uk

NOTES
These notes do not form part of the licence.
(a) A licence in similar terms has been issued by the Scottish Executive in respect of Scotland and the National Assembly for Wales in respect of Wales. (b) Section 6(1) of the Act provides that it shall be an offence if any person (a) sells, offers or exposes for sale, or has in his possession or transports for the purposes of sale, any live wild bird other than a bird included in Part I of Schedule 3, or any eggs of a wild bird or any part of such an egg; or (b) publishes or causes to be published any advertisement likely to be understood as conveying that he buys or sells, or intends to buy or sell, any of those things, he shall be guilty of an offence. Section 16(4)(a) provides that Section 6(1) does not apply to anything done for the purposes of sale, under and in accordance with the terms of a licence granted by the appropriate authority.
(c) Birds listed on Part I of Schedule 3 are required to be ringed in accordance with the requirements set out in Section 6(5) of the Act and SI 1982/1220. Changes in the taxonomic status of Mealy Redpoll mean that it is now listed under Common Redpoll (Carduelis flammea) and, as such, is listed on Schedule 3 Part I. However the MealyRedpoll has thick legs and it cannot wear the ring size specified in the regulations. This licence permits a suitable ring.