54 



Bird Notes and News 



The Plumage Trade 



BOARD OF TEADE ADVISORY 

 COMMITTEE 



The Board of Trade announce that the 

 Advisory Committee required by the Plumage 

 Bill will be constituted as follows : — 



Chairman : The Marquess of Crewe, K.G. 

 Experts in Ornithologtj : Dr. W. Eagle Clarke, 

 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker. Experts in the Feather 

 Trade : Mr. C F. Downham, Mr. L. Joseph, 

 Mr. W. G. Dunstall. Other Members: The 

 Earl Buxton, Capt. E. G. Fairholme, Mrs. 

 R. McKenna, Mr. H. J. Massingham. 



Lord Buxton is Hon. Treasurer of the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds ; Capt. 

 Fairholme Secretary of the R.S.P.C.A.; Mr. 

 Massingham and Mrs. McKenna members of the 

 Plumage Bill Group. Mr. Stuart Baker is Sec- 

 retary of the British Ornithologists Union, and 

 Dr. Eagle Clarke a leading authority on 

 migration and for many years Keeper of the 

 Natural History Department, Royal Scottish 

 Museum. The names of Messrs. Downham, 

 Joseph, and Dunstall are familiar to those who 

 have followed the several Plumage campaigns, 

 as practised and astute trade representatives 

 whose statements, from the time of Lord 

 Avebury's Bill onwards, have been constantly 

 refuted by the R.S.P.B. in " Feathers and 

 Facts," " The Fight for the Birds," and other 

 publications, and in Bird Notes and News. 



THE OILED FEATHER 



A new canard has been put forth in a Chicago 

 publication. As it is a serious publication, 

 not a comic journal, the presumable intention 

 is to strengthen the effort that is being con- 

 stantly made to win readmission to the United 

 States for banned plumage. It inns : — 



" A noted Venezuelan official and naturalist is 

 declared to have discovered a method of extracting 

 the valuable plumes ^vithout injurmg the Plgret Herons. 

 In certain seasons, whnn the natural oil of the bird is 

 abundant, the root of the feather is anointed with a 

 vegetable oil of tropical source, and the plume is 

 then easily plucked. The method causes the Egret no 

 discomfort and does not interfere with the care of its 

 young. To ensure its use, a law has been passed in the 

 South American country providing a severe penalty 

 for killing or maiming any of the birds which, if treated 

 well, may be kept in preserves, like other wild fowl." 



That South American law and that Venezuelan 

 official are familiar to the R.S.P.B., though both 

 are adaptable to circumstances. 



ge 



ECONOMIC VALUE OF PLUMAGE 

 BIRDS 



The Journal of the African Society (No. 

 LXXX) has the following comment on the 

 Plumage question : — 



" Any one in search of an argument in support of a 

 scheme of Imperial devolution might find it in the 

 Plumage Bill, which passed the House of Commons on 

 June 10th. For years past members of both Houses of 

 Parliament have endeavoured to prevent the wholesale 

 destruction of wild birds, cursed with the possession of 

 marketable plumage, by making the importation of 

 their plumage illegal. Year after year their efforts 

 have been thwarted by the protagonists of those 

 interested in the importation, sale, and use of these 

 feathers. It is unfortunate that supporters of legis- 

 lation to protect plumage birds have based their argu- 

 ments too largely on perfectly legitimate sentimental 

 considerations, and have attached too little weight to 

 the economic value of the birds. . . . The service 

 that living plumage birds render to mankind is literally 

 incalculable. The gpstlietic value of the service they 

 render when dead to those who wear their feathers as 

 ornaments may be dismissed from the argument as 

 trivial. The monetary value of the dead birds to those 

 interested in the feather mdustry is easily calculable, 

 is very small, and is, in fact, practically negligible 

 when set beside the monetary loss incurred by the 

 spread of pests in districts where plumage birds have 

 been exterminated. Unhappily, those who in England 

 are financially interested in the destruction of the 

 plumage birds either have votes or can otherwise 

 influence the decisions of Parliament. Those who are 

 financially interested in the protection of the plumage 

 birds live in Africa, the West Indies, or other countries 

 not directly represented in Parliament. If the 

 interests of the Empire as a whole were adequately 

 represented at Westminster, plumage birds would have 

 been protected from the moment of the first discovery 

 of their economic value." 



An experiment in Ostrich-farming is being 

 made in Sardinia on a wide plain bounded by 

 sea and mountains. The birds are kept, in 

 pairs or groups, in enclosures which are fenced 

 ofi and separated by tree-shaded paths. Each 

 enclosure has a house where birds can shelter 

 and where one " room " has layers of sand for 

 them to dig and lay in. There are cribs and 

 watering-places and an incubator, and every 

 effort is seemingly being made to establish the 

 industry. The gathering of the feathers can 

 begin when the birds are rather more than a 

 year old, and repeated each September or 

 October. The feathers are cut off well above 

 the skin, and three months later the old stumps 

 are painlessly removed by the bird itself. 

 So says the new Italian agricxdtural iournal, 

 Bassa Corte. 



