Bird Notes and News 



67 



is nominally a close-time from May 1st to 

 July 15th, during which the destruction of 

 nests and eggs is also prohibited . Mr. Forbush 

 relates ("Useful Birds and their Protection") 



their plumage in Siberia led to a plague of 

 locusts and cutworms in 1895 that threatened 

 famine ; and enormous quantities of mllow- 

 grouse have been destroyed for the trade in 



that the destruction of certain birds for wings. Moscowhasalso a noted bird-market. 



The Plumage Trade. 



Prohibition of the import of plumage has 

 come at last, as a temporary necessity, and 

 by a side-wind. Three years ago, in March, 

 1914, the nation expressed its opinion on 

 the subject, through its representatives in 

 Parliament, in no uncertain manner ; it 

 seemed for the moment as though honest 

 convictions were to outweigh vested interests. 

 Two and a half years ago the outbreak of 

 war might well have suggested to any 

 Government the desirability for suppressing 

 useless extravagance, and to any woman 

 the decency of refraining from " murderous 

 millinery " and the " white feather " of 

 cruelty. A year ago the Royal Society for 

 the Protection of Birds and the Trustees of 

 the British ]Museum again pressed upon a 

 Board of Trade interested in tonnage and a 

 Government talking about economy, the 

 plain sense of stopping a " useless and un- 

 desirable import and a wholly indefensible 

 form of extravagance." Apparently, how- 

 ever, ospreys and birdskins are as essential 

 to the people as the health-giving foods 

 and drinks now prohibited in their company. 

 One duty remains clear : to keep the anti- 

 plumage campaign resolutely to the fore, in 

 order that when the embargo is removed 

 from ostnch-feathers, the feathers of wild 

 bird.s killed for their plumage may be banned 

 for all time, no matter what tales of Bird-of- 

 paradise " farms " or Egret " hutches " 

 may be served up by the trade. 



SALMON-FLIES AND RARE 

 BIRDS' FEATHERS. 



By \V. Baden-Powell, K.C. 



The Salmon-Fly of yesterday, and for 

 nearly a hundred years past, was made, 

 increasingly as time went on, of brighter 

 and brighter coloured feathers taken from 

 the skins of innumerable rare birds. 



Salmon fishing, by rod and line for sport, 

 is in vogue not onJy in England, Ireland, 

 and Scotland, but all over Norway, Sweden, 

 Iceland, America, Canada, many parts of 

 New Zealand, and other parts of the world. 

 No census exists reliably informing us what 

 the number of fishermen may be who use 

 the salmon-fiy, or even of the number of 

 tackle-makers who make and sell salmon- 

 flies. A general but crude view may be 

 that there are thousands of towns in most 

 of the countries named, and that there is 

 scarcely a town in which a fishing-tackle- 

 maker, or several of the trade, would not be 

 found who make and sell salmon-flies. 



Then we turn to the so-called fashionable 

 or standard " flies " used all over the world. 

 These on good authority mclude some 400 

 particular patterns, known as " Standards " 

 and many more " outside " patterns. Size 

 of the actual hy, to use in various river con- 

 ditions, is of great importance, and an 

 expert would usually have with him several 

 sizes of each of his pet patterns, and dupli- 

 cates of all these to anticipate losses and 

 breakages. Thus the tradesman, in order 

 to suit the various choices of his patrons 

 must make up immense numbers of patterns 

 and sizes and duplicates for his stock. So 

 we camiot attempt to assess the hiuidreds 

 of thousands of flies that must be tied yearly 

 in the trade. 



Each of these flies is a gaudy display, or 

 bouquet, of brilliant colour, mainly obtained 



