The Audubon Societies 



193 



in large supply, selling at ^^d. lo ^Jd. 

 each. Impeyan Pheasants were 9s, 3d. 

 each. Trogons gd. to 2s. -jd., Orioles ijd., 

 Tanagers 4id., Ruby Hummingbirds 

 lid- Victoria and Coronata Pigeons were 

 represented by over S,ooo heads and 

 crests. There were 205 packages of 

 'Osprey, ' mostly from .\sia; and 6,190 

 Birds-of-Paradise." (Froni Bird Notes 

 and News,' London). 



The above ghastly list of nature's finest 

 gems was sufficient reason for the intro- 

 duction of "The Plumage Prohibition 

 Bill" into the House of Lords by Lord 

 .'Vvebury on May 5. The important pro- 

 vision is: "Any person who, after January 

 1, 1909, shall import or bring into the 

 I'nited Kingdom for the purpose of sale 

 or e.xchange the plumage, skin, or body, 

 or any part of the plumage, skin, or body 

 of any dead bird which is not included 

 in the schedule of exemption to this Act 

 shall be guilty of an otTence, and shall, 

 on summary conviction, be liable to a 

 penalty of not exceeding £^, and for 

 every subsequent offence to a penalty of 

 not exceeding £2^, and in every case the 

 court shall order the forfeiture and de- 

 struction of the articles in respect of which 

 the offence has been committed." 



The birds exempted in the schedule are 

 "Ostriches, Eider Ducks and wild birds 

 used as an article of diet." Names of for- 

 eign wild birds may be added or removed 

 from the schedule by consent of the Privy 

 Council. Lord .\vebury said the Bill was 

 introduced at the request of the Zoological 

 Society of London, the Linnsean Society 

 of London, the Selborne Society and the 

 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; 

 further the bill had the support of the 

 naturalists of the country, and especially 

 of all lovers of birds. The bill has been 

 most cordially and sympathetically re- 

 ceived by the press. 



The Manchester (Eng.) Guardian says: 

 "The wail of the wholesale feather trade, 

 which is beginning to be heard since the 

 welcome to Lord Avebury's Importation 

 of Plumage Bill, gives one unintentionally 

 an excellent piece of news. For it is an 

 item of their gloom that nearlv all the raw 



skins and plumage used throughout the 

 Continent come into the London market 

 in the first instance. 



"Of course, it is possible that foreign 

 countries would obtain their sujiplies 

 direct, but at least if the Bill passes, the 

 deplorable trade would be so disorganized 

 that it might never return to the present 

 appalling statistics of slaughter." 



The millinery trade is evidently greatly 

 stirred up over Lord Avebury's Bill or 

 they would not publish such a foolish 

 statement regarding aigrettes as follows: 

 "In regard to aigrettes, the people who 

 collect these are not so foolish as to kill 

 the goose that lays the golden egg, and in 

 Venezuela, which produces the biggest lot 

 of aigrettes, not one bird is killed, but the 

 feather is picked up at certain seasons of 

 the year when the bird casts its feathers. " 

 This ancient but untruthful story has 

 been shown up so often that it is fast 

 becoming a joke. Why won't the milli- 

 nery trade frankly acknowledge what they 

 know to be true, that in order to obtain 

 the plumes known as 'aigrettes' White 

 Herons have to be killed while the plumes 

 are in good condition. Why won't the 

 milliners be honest and acknowledge that 

 when the parent birds are killed the help- 

 less nestlings must die of starvation. 



Will the milliners please explain why 

 there are no White Herons left in Florida 

 now, while a score of years ago they could 

 be found there in countless numbers? 

 If "the feather plume is picked up at cer- 

 tain seasons of the year when the bird 

 casts its feathers," why should the White 

 Herons have disappeared? The Paris 

 letter in The Millinery Trade Review 

 (New York) for July says: "Black and 

 white aigrette dyed in bright light shades 

 is very much in it too, the favorite tints 

 being rose-pink, maize, brown-yellow, 

 apricot, old rose and steel-gray. Birds 

 continue in considerable favor, Birds-of- 

 Paradise taking first rank, white and 

 brown Cockatoos and White Owls and 

 Macaws coming next." It is evident that 

 the millinery trade do not intend to aban- 

 don the use of the plumage of wild birds 

 except so far as they are compelled to do- 



