6 



Bird Notes and News 



busy collecting enormous quantities of 

 grubs and insects of all kinds to feed their 

 young, and the result of killing the birds 

 would be at once a great increase in 

 the number of insects. The latter do 

 infinitely more harm to crops and gardens 

 than do the birds. 



The Times, in an article on the lecture, 

 observes that " perhaps the heartiest 

 round of applause which greeted Dr. 

 Mitchell was evoked by his explanation of 

 the services rendered to man by insecti- 

 vorous birds, especially in the work of 

 feeding their j^oung, and of the fact that 



any serious diminution in their numbers 

 would lead to plagues of insects. It is, 

 adds the Times, "a doctrine that needs 

 preaching." 



It may indeed be said that the Close 

 Time instituted for the protection of 

 birds is equally valuable as an Act for 

 the protection of Crops. But man's 

 memory is short, and his observation 

 faulty ; as soon as the birds take fruit 

 or grain in autumn, song and service are 

 forgotten, and instead of offering at harvest 

 time the grateful sheaf to his unpaid la- 

 bourers, he calls for the gun, net, and trap , 



The Plume-Trade. 



The Royal Society for the Protection 

 of Birds is officially informed that the 

 Trustees of the British Museum have 

 decided to bring the question of inter- 

 national action for the protection of plume- 

 birds before His Majesty's Secretary of 

 State for Foreign Affairs, in the hope that 

 he may see his way to move in the matter 

 with a view to an International Con- 

 ference on the subject. 



The new and welcome Bird Protection 

 League of France proposes to combine 

 opposition to the destruction of birds for 

 millinery with the encouragement of a 

 trade in the feathers of specially raised 

 and domesticated birds. Before there 

 can be any basis for the encouragement 

 of such a trade in England, it is 

 obvious that the importation of foreign 

 plumage must first be stopped. At 

 present, traders profess that " almost all 

 the plumage of wild birds, such as Marabou, 

 Birds of Paradise, and Ospreys [5^c], is 

 imitated with the feathers of farmyard 

 birds " {U Agriculture Commerciale, June 

 25th, 1911). We in England have too 

 familiar an acquaintance with the lie of 



the "artificial osprey " to credit this, until 

 at any rate a Bird of Paradise made 

 from a barndoor fowl is submitted to the 

 Natural History Museum for examination. 

 We can only say, if it can be done, why 

 are these wonderful things hidden from 

 the ornithologist ? Equally famihar with 

 the sham " artificial osprey " is the 

 feather ornament concocted from the 

 plumage of half a dozen brilliant foreign 

 birds, but vaguely imagined to be 

 " poultry " by women wearers, upon 

 whom the term " made-up " appears to 

 have the reassuring effect of " that blessed 

 word Mesopotamia." It will, unfortu- 

 nately, be wholly impossible to believe 

 in the barndoor and the specially raised 

 home -product until it is absolutely certain 

 that the feather-trade are unable to lay 

 rapacious hands upon the plumage of 

 murdered wild birds. For this hearty 

 disbelief the trade have themselves to 

 thank, since their own varied assertions 

 and arguments have made it impossible 

 to credit what they say. 



Meanwhile the Feather Sales continue 

 to indicate the slaughter that is still 

 going on. At the February sale, one firm 



