Bird Notes & News 



ISSUED QUARTERLY BY THE ROYAL SOCIETY 

 :: :: FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Vol. IX.] 



SPRING. 1920. 



INo. 1. 



Trade and the Plumage Question. 



By Dr. W. J. HORNADAY. 



The following article is specially contributed by Dr. 

 W. J. Hornaday, of the New York Zoological Park, the 

 well-known leader in the fight against importation of 

 wild birds'' skins and plumage into the United States, a 

 fight which, thanks to his energy and to the efforts of the 

 Audubon Association, ended in 1913 in the absolute 

 prohibition of all import, sale, or wear of such plumage. 

 li is of peculiar value at the present juncture, as showing 

 the view taken by the commercial world as soon as the laio 

 was an accomplished fact, and thus proving the contention 

 of the R.S.P.B. that similar results will folloiu in Great 

 Britain when once the Government take a firm stand and 

 pass the long-delayed measure. 



It has long been a matter of wonder why Chambers of 

 Commerce of honourable traditions, why representatives 

 of clean and honest British trade, should support a traffic 

 that brings utter discredit upon that commerce, and tars 

 British trade with the brush of its own infamy — a traffic 

 denounced by a member of the present Government as 

 " utterly indefensible." It is perfectly safe to conclude 

 that, once this hateful dealing in dead birds is stopped, 

 British trade will breathe freely and thankfully as at the 

 removal of a sickening burden, and will devote itself, as 

 American trade has done, to loyal co-operation with the 

 Customs House and to the development of British and 

 Colonial productions and industries. 



The prohibitory results of the American and 

 Canadian tarifi laws (1913) for the exclusion of 

 all wild-bird plumage intended for commercial 

 uses are everything that their sponsors ever 

 hoped they would be. The disappearance of 

 wild feathers from women's hats is wholly due 

 to a law that is 99| per cent, effective. 



Before the American law went into effect, on 

 October ith, 1913, a few dealers imported all 

 the " paradise," " goura " and " numidia " 

 that their cash would pay for. At the same 

 time, many other dealers elected to cease carry- 

 ing forbidden feathers. To-day this honourable 

 group is represented by the New York Millinery 

 Chamber of Commerce ; and recently it has 

 recorded very decided protests against the 

 further sale by the trade of banned plumage. 

 They object to the odium that is being brought 

 upon a respectable trade by a few irrecon- 

 cilables, who are determined to sell " paradise " 

 as long as one can be obtained. 



The stocks on hand when our law to prohibit 

 imports went into effect were not confiscated, 

 nor otherwise rendered unsaleable, and a very 

 small supply is on sale to-day, at prices so high 

 that a few men take great risks in trying to 

 work the smuggling game. But showy feathers 

 are difficult to smuggle and realise upon after- 

 ward. Any thief can steal property from other 

 people, but now it takes a supreme genius to 

 dispose of it afterward by sale without getting 

 caught. The law was drawn as a barrier net 

 with meshes so fine that not one wild feather 

 could get through it, and it has turned out well. 

 Several parties now can testify that so far as 

 economy is concerned, the smuggling of bird 

 feathers is a highly expensive pastime. For 

 example, instead of getting large profits, 

 Abraham Kallman, of Laredo, Texas, got six 

 months' imprisonment, a fine of $2,500, and a 

 loss of about $50,000— all on the wrong side 

 of his " paradise " account. He bought the 

 527 skins (that he lost) in London. 



Even at this time there is possibly a trace of 

 illegal Egret killing and Aigrette smuggling, 

 practised with great labour and travail, at 

 Fort Myers, Florida, and possibly at a few other 

 points infested by northern newly-rich visitors. 

 The smart set of the northern cities has ceased 

 to care for Aigrettes, or to buy them, even 

 when offered the chance ; but the newly-rich- 

 from-the-war buy all sorts of foolish things, 

 and with them an occasional forbidden Aigrette. 

 In New York City the wearing of Aigrettes is 

 said to be confined to amateur actresses and 

 ladies' maids, who get cast-o£E finery for 

 nothing. 



But the absence of wild birds' plumage in 

 New York is phenomenally complete. One 

 can watch for days together without seeing 

 one feather from a wild bird. 



The strangest manifestation of all is the 

 desire of the members of the legitimate feather 



