Bird Notes and News 



General Business. 



On consideration of the educational 

 work for 1916, it was decided to drop for 

 this year the Public School Essay Com- 

 petition, since under present circumstances 

 the number of competitors was not likel}^ 

 to be sufficient to give it interest and 

 value ; but to maintain the Bird and Tree 

 Competitions in the Elementary Schools 

 without change, on account of the useful 

 results achieved through tlie co-operation 

 of the Education Authorities and the 

 Teachers. The Aimual Report and ar- 

 rangements for the Annual Meeting were 

 discussed. Correspondence deahng with 

 various matters was considered. 



Meetings of the Watchers Committee 

 and of the Finance and General Purposes 

 Committee were held on February 18th. 



Next meeting of the Council, April 14th. 



OBITUARY. 



The death of Sir Here ward Wake, Bart., 

 has deprived Bird Protection of a constant 



and sympathetic supporter. His special 

 interest lay in the economic value of 

 bird-life, and he was always ready to 

 protest against ill-considered denunciation 

 and destruction of a species without 

 proper evidence and trial. Some years 

 ago he wrote for the R.S.P.B. a leaflet 

 addressed to Public Schoolboys, " Fiat 

 Justitia," in which he commended to 

 them the study of ornithology — " you will 

 never be dull or feel bored again as long 

 as you live " — and also pleaded that the 

 case of every bird charged with mis- 

 demeanour should be investigated with 

 justice, mercy, and common-sense ; since 

 " no j)erson is fitted to pronounce judg- 

 ment who is not well informed on the 

 subject and has not an impartial mind, 

 and does not take into account the preju- 

 dices which exist where real or fancied 

 injury has been suffered." 



Sir Hereward had been a Fellow of the 

 Society since 1904. 



The Plume Trade. 



The Annual Report (1914-15) of the Gover- 

 nors of the Public Library and Museum of 

 South Australia, Adelaide, records : " At 

 the request of the Sub-Collector of Customs, 

 samples of several shipments of plumes 

 imported for millinery purposes were ex- 

 amined to ascertain if they contained feathers 

 of protected birds, classed as prohibited 

 imports. In one shipment plumes of Egrets 

 were detected and were consequently con- 

 fiscated by the authorities." 



The leader of the American Museum's 

 Congo Expedition, writing an accoimt of the 

 Congo in the Museum Journal, pictures a 

 head-dress worn by the " head-wife " of one 

 of the Chiefs, which may suggest novelties 

 for English wearers of " ospreys " and 

 Paradise-plumes. It consists of a skull-cap 

 formed of dogs' teeth, fastened on by a 

 hatpin made of a monkey's forearm-bone ; 

 above is a fibre hat, decorated with numerous 



tail-feathers of the African grey Parrot, 

 " which bird is often kept in captivity so 

 that the much-prized feathers can be pulled 

 out as fast as they grow." The latter idea 

 may be commended to the notice of the 

 " Committee for the Economic Preservation of 

 Birds," if that egregious body is still in exist- 

 ence, and to the writers on " Egret-farming." 



From America come details of a fresh raid 

 by plume-hunters on Laysan Island in the 

 Pacific, one of the largest of the U.S.A. bird- 

 reserves. In 1 909 it was ravaged by poachers 

 of the plume-trade, who killed about half 

 the Albatrosses on the island for the sake of 

 their wing-feathers, and left ghastly evidence 

 of their work. On this later occasion it 

 would appear that the breast-feathers only 

 were wanted. Between 150,000 and 200,000 

 birds were foimd lying in heaps all over the 

 island ; in the majority of cases the feathers 

 had been pulled out, in others knives had 



