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BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



THE PLUME TRADE. 



The official report of the feather sale of August 

 2nd states that there was a small quantity of 

 " osprey " feathers offered and only a small 

 attendance of buyers. The quantity catalogued 

 was 315 packages- The Birds-of-Paradise offered 

 numbered 3831, besides seven packages ; all sold 

 at a decline in prices. Alabatross wing quills 

 fetched id. to 3r]d. each. Bustard wing quills 

 4d. to 4|d. a bundle, the provision of quills being 

 very large. Emu skins were 10s. each, and 

 Crested Pigeons 6s. each. A peculiarly deplorable 

 feature of the sale was the offer of four 

 packages of Lyre-bird tails ; this beautiful bird is 

 found only in Australia, and is being driven deeper 

 and deeper into the bush in ever-decreasing 

 numbers, on account of the persecution it meets 

 with in the interests of the plume-trade. 



At the Galle Police court, Ceylon, on June 27th, 

 a Moorish shopkeeper in a bazaar was fined R.io 

 for cruelty to birds. He is in the habit of 

 exporting birds' feathers to Singapore, and the 

 police becoming suspicious, the boutique was 

 searched and 40 live Kingfishers found on the 

 premises. The magistrate warned all present 

 that future cases would be more rigorously dealt 

 with. 



The extermination of the magnificent Paradise- 

 bird, one of the most radiant of living beings, goes 

 on apace. Mr. Walter Goodfellow gave some 

 particulars of his recent visit to New Guinea at 

 the meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club on 

 June 19th last, New Guinea being the one habitat 

 of this bird, of which he was anxious to procure 

 living examples. He stated that a great exporta- 

 tion of the skins takes place from Humboldt's Bay, 

 two Chinese traders who live there despatching 

 about 1200 skins, chiefly of the Lesser Bird-of- 

 Paradise, every three months. Subsequently he 

 spent some time on the Island of Waigiou, the 

 home of Pat adisea rubra (the Red Bird-of-paradise) 

 and found that this species is being rapidly 

 exterminated, as young male and female birds were 

 being shot in addition to full plumaged males. 

 Large numbers of skins of several species are 

 exported from Sorong. In the Aru Isle he 

 observed that P. apoda was also being extirpated, 

 and the natives informed him that each year every 

 full-plumaged male was killed. From the six or 

 seven districts of North and West New Guinea close 



on 20,000 skins of Paradise-birds are annually 

 exported. The beautiful long plumaged species P. 

 fobiensts,\s all but exterminated, and last year only 

 70 skins were exported from Jobi, though all the 

 natives were engaged hunting for them. 



For this war of extermination the responsible 

 agents are the women who want to have Paradise- 

 plumes waving in their hats. 



Autumn is the season when " ospreys," birds, 

 and quills are apt to re-appear in millinery, and 

 when much is heard (but not seen) of " made-up ' 

 and "manufactured" feathers. Hats trimmed with 

 bunches of Gulls and Terns— the arrangement can 

 scarcely be otherwise described — and ornaments 

 made of Owl feathers, are being shown in some 

 windows ; but the probability is that Ostrich 

 feathers will retain their lead and that dead birds 

 and wild wings will be relegated to the back 

 streets. Ladies who view with favour the grotesque 

 millinery structures, with a two-feet spread of 

 wing, a centrepiece of twisted heads and necks, 

 and an upstanding shock of " osprey," or Lyre- 

 bird tail, that are to be seen here and there, wil 

 certainly do something to substantiate Herbert 

 Spencer's not too flattering opinion on the civiliza- 

 tion of women. 



The Farmer and the Birds.— On a small 

 scale interference with Nature is every now and 

 again demonstrating at once its futility and its 

 dangers, and, curiously enough, farmers, who as a 

 class should know most of its workings and should 

 be most careful in their interference, are at once 

 the greatest meddlers and the commonest sinners. 

 Every now and again in recurring years we have 

 the cry '' Death to all sparrows," or rooks, or otner 

 birds. Whole districts are cleared of these birds 

 and immense slaughter takes place, to be followed 

 in a year or two by an outcry as to insect plagues, 

 which cause more loss and do more harm than 

 could ever be attributed to the birds. A case in 

 point is occupying the agriculturists of a large 

 district of Lancashire. The smaller birds of prey 

 have come under the ban. Hawks and Owls were 

 killed without stint, and these birds, already 

 diminishing in numbers, almost disappeared. The 

 result was to be expected. Rats and mice, their 

 natural prey, now abound, and are working greater 

 havoc, not only in the farms and fields, but among 

 the insect-eating fauna. The nests of the smaller 

 hedge-builders are robbed by the rodents, and 

 eggs and young birds are destroyed in multitudes. 

 Thus the mischief done is far beyond what any- 

 body calculated. Not one plague, but several 

 have been caused. To redress the evil is a slow 

 and costly process. Truly is such matters a little 

 recklessness is a dangerous thing, and its results 

 cannot be foreseen. — Dundee Evening Telegraph 

 Sept. 3rd, 1907. 



