56 



Bird Notes and News 



" May I add my small voice to the others ? As 

 my firm has been for more than 50 years closely in 

 touch with the export trade to South Africa and has 

 constantly bought from the fancy feather houses 

 in the City, and knows full well that many of these 

 houses urge that such a Bill would be fatal to their 

 business and throw thousands out of employment, 

 I should like to tell you that my view is entirely the 

 opposite. 



" There is not the slightest necessity for any of these 

 decorations to be used, and the hands who are now 

 employed upon this brutal and callous department of 

 the fancy trade would very soon be employed on 

 flowers and imitation items if such articles as aigrettes, 

 etc., were forbidden. The great popularity of ostrich 

 feathers, in which there is no cruelty, shows that the 

 fashion can easily be worked, and if our Government 

 will only take a strong stand like the American Govern- 

 ment, it would do endless good and save much cruelty, 

 and do no harm to any but the brutal and the thought- 

 less." 



" A REMUNERATIVE TRADE." 



In the course of the correspondence in the 

 Observer, Mr. Hamel Smith, claiming twenty 

 years' knowledge of the trade, wrote in its 

 defence, bringing np the story of Egret 

 " farms," and invoking the sympathy of those 

 who " do not want to see a remunerative trade 

 go to France or Germany, which latter country 

 will grab at it." To this the Secretary of the 

 R.S.P.B. replied :— 



" There is one point in Mr. Hamel Smith's letter 

 which must go straight to the heart of every English- 

 man. 



" We may ignore all the earlier part of his compo- 

 sition. I, too, have kiiown the plumage trade for 

 twenty years, and am familiar with its apologetics, its 

 ingenious inventions which parade as facts, its appeals 

 for the understanding and sympathy of a nation which 

 understands very well and is consequently anxious to 

 remove this blot from our commerce ; its mild allusions 

 to a cruelty which " should not be," but is ; and its 

 bird-farms which have wandered from Spain to India, 

 and from Venezuela to the dim isles of the future — 

 which have been, and are, and might be, but are known 

 to no mortal man, and will never exist until the killing 

 of wild birds ceases to pay because there are not enough 

 left to kill. 



" All this is a twice — a hundred-times — told tale. 

 There is one, and only one, solid defence for the trade ; 

 there is money in it. Not labour's money ; there 

 could scarcely be less of that in proportion to the 

 profits ; but pure profiteering out of the natural 

 beauty and life of the world. And when Mr. Smith 

 hints his fear that the profits may go to Berlin he hits 

 the nail. 



" K this sacking of the forest cathedrals of the 

 world, this pillaging of nature's jewels, must go on, let 

 us. Sir, by aU means leave the business to the one 

 nation worthy of its methods — to the Germans of 

 Louvain, of Ypres, and of Rheims. 



AN 



ABC OF COMMON B!RDS 



A pocket Guide to the commoner Inland Birds of Britain 



With short and simple descriptions from which 

 they may be identified by the unlearned ; their 

 local names ; and brief notes on the food they 

 eat that may be regarded as " pro " or " con '* 

 the interests of husbandman and gardener. 



16mo. 64 pages. Price 6d., by post 7d. 



" Thousands of country men and women should be 

 glad of the little 'A. B. C. of Common Birds.' It is a 

 real guide, the best and shortest in existence, to the 

 identification of birds and to a knowledge of their uses. 

 It should be used in village and preparatory schools." — 

 Daily Mail. 



" Useful and interesting little pamphlet. . . The 

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" Admirably fulfils its purpose." — Inquirer. 



" A very handy little book giving a brief description 

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" A short and pithy description of the commonest 

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" The Society never had a happier thought than its 

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" These pros and cons for the birds appear to have 

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 Feathered World. 



Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, 



23, QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, S.W.I. 



Bird Notes and News (issued quarterly) will 

 be sent post free to any address for Is. 6d. per annum, 

 payable in advance; single numbers, 4d. 



To Members of the Society subscribing 5s. and 

 upwards per annum it is forwarded gratis and post 

 free. 



Printed by Vacher & Sons, Ltd., Westminster House, 

 S.W.I — 7-646— and puLlished by the Royal Society fok 

 THE Pkoteoxioh OF BiEDS, 23, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W.I. 



