BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



the very thing feared, by advertising the 

 bird's presence. The aid of landowners 

 and tenants of sporting rights is important ; 

 and the support of magistrates in dealing 

 with offenders is necessary if convictions are 

 to produce any sensible effect. So long as 

 the keeper who shoots a Harrier is allowed 



to traffic in his specimen, and the man who 

 shoots a Bittern because he " didn't know 

 what it was " gets off with a nominal fine — 

 both of these are recent cases — the law will 

 not have much attention, and the work of 

 Watchers will be proportionate!} 7 more 

 difficult. 



ucr usr The Plume Trade, ^csr ^sr 



The following figures show the number of packages 

 of " osprey " feathers and of skins of Birds of 

 Paradise offered at each of the London plume sales 



during 1907 :— 



" Osprey " Birds of 



packages. Paradise. 



4,728 

 3,831 

 4,244 

 3,831 

 7,000 

 4,667 



The totals cannot be exactly obtained by adding 

 these columns, as no doubt a discount must be 

 allowed for plumes left unsold on one day and 

 offered again at the next sale. The total sum of 

 the " osprey " packages is 2337, against 1868 in 

 1906 ; so that neither Queen Alexandra's expression 

 of opinion, nor the various laws for prohibiting the 

 export of such feathers, can be said to have had 

 any effect on the efforts of the trade. The total 

 number of Birds of Paradise shown is 28,300. Other 

 features of the sales were the number of Crowned 

 Pigeons from New Guinea (a very rare and beautiful 

 species) and of Kingfishers ; and the continued import 

 of Impeyan Pheasants from India, and of Lyre 

 Bird tails and Emu skins from Australia, where 

 both these birds are supposed to be protected. 



The first sale of 1908 was held at the Commercial 

 Sale Rooms, London, on February 11th. For this 

 sale 8631 Birds of Paradise were catalogued, and 

 Crested Pigeons were again in large supply. There 

 were 253 packages of " osprey " feathers offered, 

 110 of which were stated to be East Indian ; nearly 

 all sold, and prices were much higher. A large 

 number of Terns and Kingfishers were included in 

 the sale, the former chiefly from Japan, and from 

 the same country one firm offered nearly 18,000 

 " Dominoes." 



Sir Herbert Maxwell, in his Naturalist's Notes in 

 the Pall Mall Gazette (February 25th, 1908), quotes 

 from an Australian newspaper a description of the 

 progress made at the Antipodes in the nefarious 

 trade of plume-hunters : — 



" In this case the victims were a colony of White 

 Herons or Egrets, which supply milliners with 

 ' ospreys,' a feminine decoration which appears 

 to continue fashionable in some circles, although 

 the Queen has pronounced her disapproval of adorn- 

 ment procured at the expense of so much cruelty. 

 The writer describes a visit which he made in the 

 height of the breeding season, involving a journey 

 by boat of about twelve miles, this being the only 

 practicable mode of approach. On arrival, evidence 

 of a recent raid was only too plainly visible. As 

 the boat approached, large white patches were to 

 be seen floating on the water, or resting on the 

 fallen trees in the neighbourhood of the heronry. 

 These proved to be the carcases of adult egrets, 

 some fifty in number, about one-third, or perhaps 

 more, of the entire colony. These birds had been 

 ruthlessly shot while brooding their young, which, 

 to the number of about a couple of hundred, had 

 been remorselessly left to die a fingering death 

 from hunger. Many had already succumbed at 

 the time of the writer's visit, having fallen from 

 the nests into the water below. Others from time 

 to time fell from the nests to share the same fate, 

 while others, again, perished from exhaustion as 

 they sat on the nests. Perhaps the most pitiable 

 sight of all was to watch those which had still 

 sufficient strength to move and cry, attempting 

 in vain to attract the attention of old birds, parents 

 of other broods, flying past with food in their beaks 

 for their own young." 



The following extract from La Nouvelle Mode, 

 of December 29th, 1907, forwarded by Mrs. John 

 Galsworthy, is worth quoting as a glaring example 

 of that combination of savagery and ostentation 

 which appears to be a millinery ideal : — 



" En voici un, forme Lamballe, en panne noire 

 tendue, avec large draperie de skungs qui est la 

 fantaisie la plus a la mode comme fourrure de 

 chapeaux. Avec une aigrette tres fournie d'une 

 teinte assortie qui doit avoir pour le moins un pied 

 de haut, on a le fameux chapeau de 800 francs, ce 

 qui classe immediaternent une femme dans le do- 

 maine de la haute elegance. 



" L'aigrette de 600 francs etant de rigueur, 

 tout le monde comprendra quelles proportions 

 elle peut atteindre. Pour la toque de fourrure 

 dont le fond est en velours ou en loutre, les bords 

 en chinchilla ou en zibeline assortis a l'etole et au 

 manchon, l'aigrette peut etre plus modeste." 



