20 



Bird Notes and News 



it is a crime to slaughter birds for mere 

 adornment, and who had accordingly pre- 

 sented these cases to show a future generation 

 how barbarous was that which preceded it. 

 My heart warmed to this wonderful person, 

 and I looked forward to meeting him perhaps 

 at the Society's annual meeting, since he 

 must certainly be a member. 



Imagine my horror when I discovered 

 that those cases were there for an altogether 

 different pvu-pose — not to record the fall of 

 one of the vilest trades in existence, but to 

 encoiurage it. My enlightened humanitarian 

 was an altogether fictitious character. 



" There was a case of miserably stuffed 

 Humming-birds, apparently murdered for 

 the piu"pose of showing visitors that there 

 is money to be made out of their feathers. 

 There were skins of King Penguins, seemingly 

 there to illustrate a notice to the effect that 

 the skins of these birds are valuable as a 

 good base for muffs and fiu's : an invitation 

 to the unscrupulous hunter to make an 

 expedition to the Falkland Islands and do his 

 best to exterminate these unoffending birds. 



" Is it right that a national museum, of all 

 places, should be used for such a purpose ? " 



ILLEGAL TRADING IN INDIA. 



The Society is indebted to Mr. W. Jesse, 

 Hon. Sec. of the Indian Branch, for the 

 following extract from the Civil and Military 

 Gazette (Lahore), May, 1916. It appears 

 imder the heading " Scotching a Barbarous 

 Trade." 



" A few figures are published showing that 

 the Customs Preventive Department on the 

 Bombay side have during the past year been 

 highly successful in stopping the trade in 

 the illicit export of bird plumage. Ten 

 exporters have come within their grasp and 

 from these were seized egret plumes worth 

 Rs. 2,19,047 in India and £44,000 in London. 

 The rupee value represents the sum which 

 the exporters paid to those who took the 

 feathers from the birds, so the loss to the 

 trade was considerable. In addition, penalties 

 varying from R-s. 10,000 each, and amounting 

 altogether to Rs. 59,175, were inflicted on 

 these men, and over Rs. 52,000 of this sum 

 has been recovered. The Preventive Depart- 

 ment believe that they destroyed about 

 90 per cent, of the trade last year. But the 

 profits are very large, and the despatch of 

 parcels is beginning again." 



Notes. 



The Church Army and the Y.M.C.A., 

 whose Huts are doing such admirable and 

 invaluable work for our soldiers both abroad 

 and at home, are also giving most useful help 

 to the cause of the birds, by accepting the 

 Society's Bird-Protection placards for posting 

 in military camps in Great Britain, and 

 Bird Notes and News and other R.S.P.B. 

 publications for literature tables. 

 * * * 



Apropos of the Silver Medal paper on 

 " Flight," printed in the present number of 

 this magazine, is an article on " The Begin- 

 nings of Flight," in the January number of 

 the American Museum Journal. This deals 

 with Mr. C. W. Beebe's theory that a line of 

 feathers recently discovered to exist on the 



hind limbs of young birds may be the remains 

 of pelvic or hind-wings which millions of 

 years ago perhaps assisted to launch the fiirst 

 birds into the air. In this view, the primal 

 birds did not begin to fly by running and 

 then jumping into the air (on what maybe 

 called the aeroplane method) until the fore- 

 limbs developed into wings to assist the 

 process : but by leaping from trees (by the 

 parachute method) and spreading the limbs, 

 imtil both fore- and hind- wings came to be. 

 Mr. Beebe's theory is that flight at that time 

 was merely gliding, both sets of wings being 

 rigidly extended, and merely enabling their 



possessor to volplane like a flying squirrel. 

 * * * 



The Estates Gazette and the Field have 

 given considerable attention of late to records 



