The Audubon Societies 



321 



it can be obtained is to kill the bird. The 

 parent bird being killed, the young perish 

 miserably of starvation. 



"3. Because this means that those wild 

 birds whose plumage is used in millinery 

 are being killed faster than they breed. 



' 4. Because every sensible person knows 

 that to kill a species faster than it breeds 

 means extermination. 



"5. Because the very thought of the 

 fiendish cruelties which must characterize 

 a trade that depends for its profits on 

 killing the parent bird when carrying food 

 to its young is repugnant to all but brutal 

 minds. 



"6. Because economic, if not sentimental, 

 reasons should lead all truly patriotic and 

 far-seeing Englishmen to do everything 

 within their power to check the wanton 

 destruction of the wild bird life of the 

 Colonies. 



"7. Because it can be clearly demonstra- 

 ted that the appalling human mortality 

 in Uganda, and the havoc which is being 

 wrought among the live stock, are due in 

 great part to the destruction of native 

 birds for their plumage. There is no longer 

 in Uganda a sufficient number of the 

 natural enemies of the venomous tsetse 

 fly, and of parasitic insects, to keep these 

 plagues in check. 



"8. Because the destruction of wading 

 birds for their plumage in South Australia 

 is causing a decline in the fish resources of 

 that State. As these birds grow fewer 

 in numbers, so do the crustaceans, on 

 which they feed, and which, in their turn, 

 feed on the fish spawn, increase in hosts. 



"9. Because the Bombay Chamber of 

 Commerce, when approached by a Sec- 

 tion of the London Chamber of Com- 

 merce with the request that the Act 

 which prohibited the e.xport of plumage 

 from British India should be repealed, 

 pointed out in their replj- that it was a 

 recognized fact that crops of all kinds 

 were subjected to incalculable damage by 

 insect pests; that the combating of this 

 evil was one of the greatest difiiculties 

 of the Indian agriculturist; that the princi- 

 pal natural enemies of these pests were 

 the insectivorous birds; and that these 



were the very species that were being 

 relentlessly slaughtered for their plumage. 



"10. Because the Melbourne Chamber 

 of Commerce, in replying to the same 

 Section of the London Chamber of Com- 

 merce, which had submitted to the con- 

 sideration of the Melbourne Chamber a 

 book which sought to justify the trafljc 

 in plumage, said that the work performed 

 annually by the "wild birds in keeping in 

 check the ravages of myriads of noxious 

 insects was worth many millions of pounds 

 sterling to the Commonwealth. Were 

 the birds destroyed, Nature would become 

 unbalanced, and successful agriculture 

 become impossible. 



"11. Because the self-governing Domin- 

 ions, alarmed at the continued and ruthless 

 slaughter for their plumage of their 

 insectivorous and rodent-eating birds, last 

 year petitioned the Home Government 

 to close the ports of Great Britain to 

 plumage illicitly e.xported from the 

 Dominions. 



12. Because no real notice has been 

 taken of this petition or of these warnings. 



"13. Because it is not only a crime, but 

 an insensate blunder, for the British 

 Government to allow the profits of a few 

 London feather dealers to be obtained at a 

 loss to the agricultural interests of the 

 Colonies. Whatever is detrimental to 

 the agricultural interests of the Colonies 

 must tend in the long run to injure Great 

 Britain, 



"14. Because labor — even if this argu- 

 ment could be raised as an excuse for 

 dealing in the property of others — derives 

 no benefit from the traffic in contraband 

 feathers. These feathers are for the most 

 part used in their natural state, little or 

 no manipulation being required to adapt 

 them to millinery purposes. If these 

 illicit feathers were excluded from our 

 markets, manj' people would find employ- 

 ment in the manufacture of substitutes 

 from the more common fca'.hers. 



"15, Because the armoury of the British 

 Government is destitute of all weapons 

 by which the illegal trafl&c in the plumage 

 of the birds of the Colonies can be de- 

 fended. It has never even attempted to 



