6 



Bird Notes and News 



As immense stocks accumulated during the 

 war (for a portion of whicli time only was the 

 import even supposed to be inhibited), and as 

 nine months have been allowed the dealers 

 to get in further supplies, it is not to be 

 supposed that bird-lovers will cease for a long 

 while to be affronted by the sight of " ospreys," 

 Birds-of-paradise, and birds and feathers of 

 every sort in milliners' windows and in women's 

 headgear. The only cure for this would be 

 the co-operation of women, by their resolution 

 to regard the spirit as well as the letter of the law. 



The Board of Trade Advisory Committee 

 does not cease to exist with the passing of the 

 Act, and applications may, and doubtless will, 

 continue to be made for the addition of birds' 

 names to the Schedule. 



SAVING THE BIRDS 



What the New Plumage Act Does 



[The following article by a Special Correspondent is 

 reprinted by permission from the Observer (March 26, 

 1922), which has throughout been a valuable supporter 

 of the Bill.] 



The Act for Prohibiting the Importation of 

 Plumage into Great Britain comes into opera- 

 tion next Saturday (April 1st). It has peculiar 

 features which mark it out from other legisla- 

 tion, or attempts at legislation, brought before 

 the British Parliament. Acts have been passed 

 for the prevention of cruelty to domestic 

 animals — the oldest of them just a century ago 

 — and for the protection of British birds, the 

 earUest of these, dating far back in history, 

 being purely Game Laws in the interests of 

 landowners. The first Bird Protection Act 

 that gave consideration to the existence of birds 

 as birds, was the Sea-birds Act of 1869, and 

 it is worth noting that this was largely in the 

 nature of a Plumage Act. Cockney sports- 

 men, who found joy in winging sea-mews and 

 kittiwakes on the Yorkshire coast, were the 

 persons ostensibly aimed at, but a flourishing 

 trade had been set up by feather-dealers, who, 

 with their unfailing flair for obtaining goods in 

 the cheapest market, filled the shops with the 

 wings of those sea-birds, which were killed by 

 the thousand while sitting on their nests or 

 tending their young. 



There have been Parliamentary efforts, also, 

 to deal with trade annihilation of wild Hfe^ 

 efforts to deal with the killing of elephants and 

 of fur-seals, and with the slaughter of penguins 

 for boiling down into oil. 



The Plumage Act, however, does not seek to 

 protect birds from " sport." It is not based, 

 in the minds of scientific men at least, on the 

 cruelty involved, vile though that unquestion- 

 ably has been. And it does not stop at the 

 birds of the United Kingdom, or even those of 

 Greater Britain. Incidentally the question of 

 cruelty comes in, and on that count alone the 

 Act would be worth while. Incidentally it deals 

 with the strictly economic interests of man- 

 kind. Even though full knowledge of the 

 relations between insect and bird and mammal 

 is yet to seek, it is safe to see, with Sir Harry 

 Johnston, the gigantic danger involved in the 

 wholesale kilUng of insectivorous birds in lati- 

 tudes where insects threaten not only man's 

 crops but the very life of man and beast. 

 Normal experience would lead us to expect 

 three of the Ten Plagues of Egypt to be of 

 insect origin. No Moses was ever called upon 

 to deal with a plague of birds. 



Efforts of the Dominions 



For this reason again the Act would be worth 

 while. And, further, as a matter of co-opera- 

 tion with our fellow-subjects, it was called for. 

 Our Colonies and Dependencies have been for 

 years past striving to preserve their wild birds 

 by penalising the export of their skins. The 

 Mother Country worked to imdo their legisla- 

 tion by giving free import and an open market 

 to smuggled wares. 



In the next place, the Act is not drawn up 

 for the purpose of extending the trade of Great 

 Britain, but for cleaning and saving its honouj 

 and reputation. The story of trade ingenuity 

 displayed in half-truths, misrepresentations, 

 and equivocations, to be read in twenty years' 

 publications of the Royal Society for the Pro- 

 tection of Birds, is a curious record, but not one 

 to be proud of. 



But the further and inspiring characteristic 

 of the Act, which sets it apart, is the wondrous 

 spark which flashes across the murky Parlia- 

 mentary phraseology of its clauses. The bird 

 life of the world, it proclaims (to those having 

 ears), is the heritage of the world, a part of 

 the mystic web of life, an essential in the 

 fabric of creation, the limitless study of men of 

 science, the most exquisite book of the 

 naturalist's library, the possession of past and 

 present and future ; not to be destroyed 

 wantonly for the petty profits of a hundred, 

 or a thousand, petty men of to-day. Beau- 

 tiful, wonderful, harmless, useful, it shall not 



