42 



Bird Notes and News 



to assume that it does not exist ? True, 

 Committee D absolutely refused to make 

 exemptions in favour of abundant species or of 

 birds killed without proven cruelty, on the 

 groimd of the obvious impossibility of obtaining 

 a bird-census every five or ten years from every 

 corner of the globe, or of enforcing the use of 

 a humane slaughterer upon hunters of every 

 nationality eager only for skins and wings and 

 plumes. 



A trade paper puts the matter with pleasing 

 frankness : "If the prohibitionists are honest 

 in their profession, and aim only at protecting 

 birds in danger of extinction, there will be little 

 trouble in reaching a conclusion. The feather 

 trade has no use for the plumage of such birds." 

 Ergo, the Bill will not affect the trade. 



Prohibitionists have, however, never made 

 any such profession. The Royal Society for 

 the Protection of Birds has from first to last 

 maintained that it is a monstrous thing to 

 " use up " the birds of the world by ten 

 thousands and millions in order to fill the 

 coffers of a perfectly useless trade, just as it is 

 monstrous to allow the loveliest of creatures 

 to be brought within the zone of extermination 

 under the plea that the species can still be kept 

 in existence by protection in some one corner. 

 The trade has never confessed to extermination : 

 and never will. It strenuously denied having 

 exterminated Egrets in North America when 

 the ghastly facts had been revealed by naturalist 



after naturalist. One heronry held three 

 million birds ; it was " shot out." There 

 is, Mr. Bartley Denniss assured the House, 

 no danger of the extinction of Birds of Paradise. 

 Many species are rapidly being exterminated. 

 It would be impossible, Colonel Archer Shee's 

 extensive and peculiar knowledge of natural 

 history tells him, to exterminate Humming- 

 Birds or Sea-GuUs. It was no doubt equally 

 " impossible " to exterminate the millions of 

 Passenger Pigeons which once darkened the 

 skies of Massachusetts ; yet, even without an 

 avid trade behind them, the species is totally 

 extinct. The trade has never confessed to 

 cruelty : and never will. Where cruelty has 

 been proved, those birds, they know at once, 

 were not killed for millinery. They were 

 killed for something else, and there was no 

 cruelty in importing their skins. The 

 Albatrosses, Gulls and Terns of Laysan were 

 killed " for quite another purpose." 



It is useless to continue the discussion. The 

 main thing now is to remember that the facts 

 of the case are unaltered ; that no stone must 

 be left unturned to save the birds. " The 

 trade's vigilance must not be relaxed," observes 

 the Drapers' Record — the struggle is but 

 " transferred to the body charged with the 

 duty of drawing up the schedules." Under this 

 Bill there will never be a time when Bird 

 Protectors can afford to sleep. 



Economic Ornithology 



BIED PROTECTION IN FRANCE. 



An excellent little work on " The Protection of 

 Birds," treated especially in relation to agri- 

 culture, vineyard, and field, comes from 

 the pen of M. Henri Kehrig, Correspondent of 

 I'Academie d'Agriculture de France and Member 

 of the Commission Ornithologique du Ministere 

 de 1' Agriculture, etc. It touches also on the 

 provision of nesting-boxes, and on the work 

 of the Scholars' Societies in the Schools of 

 France. (Messageries de Journaux Hachette, 

 Paris.) Another admirable French publication 

 is a wall sheet of " Our Friends the Birds, 

 Agriculturists," issued by the Ligue Fran9aise 

 pour la Protection des Oiseaux. It shows 

 pictures of Owl, Woodpecker, Lark, Wagtail, 

 Swallow, Blue and Longtailed Tits, and Nightjar 

 with telling letterpress. " The protection of 



the birds," it remarked, "is a question of 

 life or death for French Agriculture." 



BIRDS AND FORESTRY. 



In a very useful and interesting Paper read 

 before the Yorkshire Branches of the Surveyors' 

 Institution and the Land Agents' Society, Mi-. 

 John Maughan (Jervaulx Abbey) said : — 



" In conclusion attention may be called to the 

 necessity of encouraging and protecting birds, which 

 are the invaluable unpaid workers on the forester's 

 staff, by leaving nesting-places (such as walls and 

 hollow trees) especially on the sunny sides of woods, 

 a.nd, if necessary, providing nesting-boxes. It would 

 even pay to feed them during severe storms, as their 

 utility cannot be over-estimated." 



Mr. Maughan added that the much-abused 

 pheasant destroyed the pupse and caterpillars 

 of many insects. 



