BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



51 



the houses in a most friendly way, like our 

 Robin, only much more so." 



The tameness of the birds indeed was a 

 feature that astonished the travellers as greatly 

 as the numbers and beauty of the bird popula- 

 tion, and it was both interesting and delightful 

 to hear from Mr. Meade-Waldo of the brilliant 

 little Humming-birds flashing to and from their 

 nests within arm's-length of the observer, and 

 without heed to man's presence. 



Mr. Meade-Waldo's experiences add one 

 more link to the chain of evidence that man 

 has himself to thank for the dread in which he 

 is commonly held by the birds. 



COUNCIL MEETING. 



The January Meeting of the Council of the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds was held on the 

 25th of the month and attended by the following 

 members : Mr. Montagu Sharpe, Chairman, in the 

 chair, Mr. Ernest Bell, Hon. A. Dobson, Mr. H. 

 E. Dresser, Dr. Drewitt and the Hon. Mrs. 

 Drewitt, Hon. Mrs. A. Henniker, Mr. F. King, 

 Mrs. F.E. Lemon, Mr. Meade- Waldo, Miss Pollock, 

 Mr. Howard Saunders, Mr. Trevor-Battye, the 

 Hon. Secretary, and the Secretary. The Hon. 

 Secretary reported certain correspondence with the 

 Home Office relative to Bird Protection legislation ; 

 that specimens of the new medal of the Society, 

 in silver, had been presented to Mr. Sharpe, who 

 gave the dies, and Mr. Hay ward Jones, who designed 

 the medal ; that ten lectures had been given since 

 December 14th ; and that various Bird and Tree 

 festivals had been held. The Finance and General 

 Purposes Committee presented the financial state- 

 ment for the year. Mr. W.G. Groves, Lady Jenkyns, 

 the Hon. Mrs. George Strutt, Mrs. Herbert Strutt, 

 and Miss Underwood were elected Fellows, and 26 

 Members were elected. The Rev. A. L. Hussey 

 was elected a Vice-President, on retiring from the 

 Council. The arrangements for the Annual 

 Meeting were considered, and legislation and the 

 other matters were discussed. 



at Caxton Hall, S.W., with the Postmaster- 

 General, Mr. Sydney Buxton, a Vice-President and 

 Hon. Treasurer of the Society, in the chair. A 

 full report of the proceedings will be issued with 

 the Annual Report. 



ANNUAL MEETING. 



The Annual Meeting of the Society is arranged 

 to lake place as this number of Bird Notes and 

 News goes to press, being fixed for March 20th, 



PLUME SALES. 



The returns for the six plume-auctions held at the 

 Commercial Sale-rooms, London, in 1906, are not 

 encouraging reading for the bird protector. The 

 numbers catalogued of Birds-of-Paradise and of 

 packages of " Osprey " feathers were as follows: — 



Osprey 



Feathers Birds-of- 



Packages. Paradise. 



February 327 ... 8,508 



April 260 ... 7,188 



June ... ... 289 ... 11,841 



August 242 ... 3,948 



October .. ... 485 ••• 5-,7°° 



December 265 ... 3,600 



This would give a total of 1868 packages of" Os- 

 prey," but owing to the fact that the packages are 

 of varying sizes the actual quantity of feathers can 

 be only very roughly estimated. An average of 

 between 20 oz. and 30 oz. to the package seems 

 to be a fair estimate, and at 20 oz. the total would 

 be over 37,000 oz., or, on Professor Newton's cal- 

 culations, the feathers of nearly 1 50,000 birds. The 

 total numbers of the Paradise skins is 40,785. In 

 both these cases a percentage must be allowed for 

 unsoid plumes offered a second time ; but the 

 figures remain sufficiently discreditable. 



Apart from Egrets, Herons and Birds-of-Para- 

 dise, the notable features of the sales were the 

 enormous numbers of Sea-Swallows (Terns) and 

 Kingfishers on sale, and the growing consignments 

 of quill-feathers from Eagles, Buzzards, Pelicans, 

 Albatrosses, Swans, and other birds. Ladies are 

 usually under the impression that a " quill " must 

 be a harmless ornament obtained from the farm- 

 yard. 



The trade in quill-feathers was even more 

 remarkable at the first sale of the present year, 

 held on February 12th ; of Albatross quill-feathers 

 one firm alone catalogued some 15,000, and also a 

 very large number of "Osprey wing-quills." 

 Another feature was the 7,000 heads and crests 

 of the Crowned Pigeon on the market. The 

 two handsome species, the Crowned Pigeon {Coura 

 coronata) and the Victoria Crowned Pigeon 

 {Goura victoria), are natives of New Guinea and 



