112 BOMBAY DUCKS 



Common Birds of Bombay." The bird is far from 

 abundant in either Calcutta or Madras. A couple 

 of blue jays live on the " Island " in the last-named 

 town ; but I cannot call to mind any others within 

 municipal limits. It is not that the roller shuns cities 

 and towns. Far from it. The bird is very common in 

 Lucknow ; I have seen as many as twenty of them 

 studded over the niaidan in front of the Oudh and 

 Rohilkand railway station. Nor can we explain the 

 rarity of the bird in Madras by assuming that the 

 climate is unsuited to the roller. 



The bird is common enough a hundred miles inland, 

 and becomes rarer as one nears Madras. Any one who 

 travels from Bangalore by the day train can verify this 

 assertion for himself. 



The truth is that European and American women 

 are responsible for the rarity of this beautiful creature. 

 It is one of the many victims of the abominable practice, 

 indulged in by some women, of wearing birds' plumage 

 in their hats. If this custom does not die a speedy 

 death, all the most beautiful birds will, ere long, be 

 swept off the face of the earth, in spite of the laws 

 passed with a view to bird protection ; for such laws are 

 easy to break. Few can be aware of the enormous 

 trade that is carried on in birds' skins. 



Every number of " Bird Notes and News," the journal 

 of the Society for the Protection of Birds, contains 

 an entry similar to the following : — 



" At the feather sale at the Commercial Sale Rooms, 

 London, on 19th April, 1904, there were 161 pack- 

 ages of osprey feathers, of varying quantities, these 



