Bird Notes and News 



19 



feed on insects that inhabit decayed or 

 standing timber. It if* therefore necessary, 

 the report continues, to proceed with caution 

 before permitting the birds to be destroj-ed, 

 as they are of essential usefulness, while 

 whatever harm they do may be guarded 

 against. The conservation of the trees 

 depends upon birds ; the moisture of the 

 land and its protection from denudation 

 and erosion depends on the trees. Where 

 the birds have taken to boring their nests 

 in cocoa-trees (owing to the destruction of 

 woodland to make way for cocoa plantations), 

 it is suggested that artificial nesting-boxes 

 might be distributed with good results ; 

 also that some restoration of the fruit 

 and nut trees which supplied them with 

 part of their food, might save the cocoa-pods 

 from attack. Mr. Ritchie summarises the 

 insect-food found in twenty-seven Wood- 

 peckers. He adds : 



" In Jamaica it should be our aim by lectures 

 and bj' work in the schools along the linos of the 

 Audubon Society of America and the various 

 States Agricultural Colleges (Riu-al Extension 

 Division) to create the right attitude of the 

 agriculturist and the child — the agriculturist-to-be 

 — towards birds. A ' Bird Day ' as observed in 

 the U.S.A. in the schools could be considered by 

 the Department of Education. Our ally the 

 United States of America has possibly the most 



progressive agricultural system in the world. In 

 that system we see advocated the use of the bird- 

 table, the winter feeding of birds, the maintenance 

 of bird sanctuaries, and the systematic erection of 

 nesting-boxes." 



BIRDS IN U.S.A. 



The United States Food CoRtroller, 

 Mr. Hoover, appreciates the co-operation 

 of birds in the conservation of food-crops. 

 He writes in an American newspaper, 

 the People's Home Journal : 



" I hope the people of the United States reaUse 

 how closely related to this whole question of 

 food-saving is the question of the protection and 

 encouragement of insectivorous and migratory 

 birds." 



A handsome bird-fountain has been 

 dedicated in the Los Angoles public park 

 to " the little warriors of the air who are 

 fighting for us," " who are protecting our 

 wheat-crops for the boys in France, who are 

 guarding the cotton crop which is used 

 for surgical purposes and for gun wads, 

 who save our forests from which we build 

 our great ships and airplanes. The birds 

 have been oflficially recognised by the 

 United States Government for their valuable 

 aid to horticulture and agriculture. This 

 fountain is placed here as our personal 

 recognition of their value." 



The Plumage Trade. 



BOCHE FASHIONS. PENNSYLVANIA'S NEW LAW. 



Whetheb the Board of Trade and D.O.R.A. have 

 or have not successfully stayed the importation of 

 plumage, efforts to push the sale have not ceased, 

 and there is no doubt that after the War every 

 means will be tried to revive the trade, on the 

 pretext of assisting either French workers or 

 Colonial interests or poverty-stricken natives by a 

 harmless provision of moulted plumes from swamps 

 in Darkest South America or of clipped feathers 

 from Egret " farms " in Darkest India. It behoves 

 every bird-lover, and especially every Hon. Secretary 

 and member of the R.S.P.B. to remember and to 

 remind others, that the plume-trade is essentially 

 alien-bom and Hun-inspired ; that the " Osprey '' 

 is essentially a Boche production, obtained by the 

 killing of parent-birds and young ; and that the 

 character of English trade and of Englishwomen 

 will not be clean until the whole business of trading 

 in the feathers and skins of wild birds slaughtered 

 to serve foolish fashions Ls swept from the British 

 market. 



Pennsylvania has stepped into the lead among 

 all the States in the protection of birds. A recent 

 change of the laws, says the Xational Humane 

 Review, now makes it a crime to sell feathers of 

 any wild birds whatsoever, without the permission 

 of the President of the Board of Game Com- 

 missioners of Pennsylvania. Such permission 

 will not be granted except in instances where the 

 State itself will be benelited, as in sales to public 

 museums or for educational pui-poses. 



Under the former law, the President of the 

 Board of Game Commissioners had the right to 

 permit taxidermists to sell mounted specimens 

 of birds, whether legally or accidentally killed 

 in that State. There was also no law against 

 the sale of feathers of foreign birds imless belong- 

 ing to the same familv as birds protected in the 

 State. 



There was a time, adds Bird-Lore, when Penn- 

 sylvania was a hotbed for the wholesale millinery 

 interests of the country that had been driven out 

 of New York State by the Audubon Law. 



