20 



BIBB NOTES ANB NEWS. 



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The Plumage Prohibition Bill. 



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The Bill to prohibit the importation of 

 Plumage was introduced into the House of 

 Lords by Lord Avebury, and read a first 

 time on May 5th. The Bill provides that : — 



Any person who, after January 1st, 1900, shall 

 import or bring into the United Kingdom for the 

 purpose of sale or exchange the plumage, skin, or 

 body, or any part of the plumage, skin, or body 

 of any dead bird which is not included in the schedule 

 of exemption to this Act shall be guilty of an offence, 

 and shall, on summary conviction, be liable to a 

 penalty of not exceeding £5, and for every sub- 

 sequent offence to a penalty of not exceeding £25, 

 and in every case the Court shall order the for- 

 feiture and destruction of the articles in respect of 

 which the offence has been committed. 



Names of foreign wild birds may be added 

 to or removed from the schedule by consent 

 of the Privy Council. The Act is not to 

 apply in the case of specimens for a scientific 

 purpose, imported under a license from the 

 Board of Trade ; nor to plumage forming 

 J3art of wearing apparel which is the bona fide 

 property of any person entering the United 

 Kingdom, and is not for sale or exchange. 

 The birds exempted as named in the schedule, 

 are " Ostriches, Eider Ducks, and wild birds 

 used as articles of diet." 



The second reading was taken on May 

 19th, when petitions in favour of the Bill 

 were presented from the Zoological Society 

 of London, the Linnean Society of London, 

 the Selborne Society, and the Royal Society 

 for the Protection of Birds. 



Lord Avebury said that the Bill was intro- 

 duced on behalf of the Societies just named, 

 and that he also presented a petition from 

 the members of the Royal Society. In fact, 

 it had the general support of the naturalists 

 of the country, and especially of all lovers 

 of birds. It was no doubt of a somewhat 

 peculiar character, but the circumstances 

 were exceptional. The most beautiful 

 species of birds were being rapidly exter- 

 minated. At the plume auctions held in 

 London during the last six months of 1907 



there were catalogued 19,742 skins of the 

 Birds of Paradise, 1411 packages of the 

 nesting plumes of the White Heron (repre- 

 senting the feathers of nearly 115,000 birds), 

 besides immense numbers of the feathers 

 and skins of almost every known species of 

 ornamental-plumaged bird. For the year 

 the sales of egrets amounted to 190,000, 

 and of Birds of Paradise over 28,000. At 

 the June sale, held at the Commercial Sale 

 Rooms, 1386 Crowned Pigeons' heads were 

 sold, while among miscellaneous bird-skins 

 one firm alone catalogued over 20,000 King- 

 fishers. A deplorable feature of recent sales 

 was the offer of large number of Lyre birds' 

 tails, and of Albatross quills. The constant 

 repetition of such figures as the above — 

 and these plume sales took place every two 

 months — showed that the Legislature must 

 choose between the extermination or the 

 protection of the birds in question. A pre- 

 cedent for legislation on this subject existed 

 in the law that now obtains in the State of 

 New York. He commended the Bill to the 

 favourable consideration of the House on 

 scientific, aesthetic, humanitarian, and 

 economic grounds. It was evident that 

 unless the slaughter was stopped several 

 species of birds would be absolutely ex- 

 terminated, and these birds were the most 

 beautiful. Moreover, birds' feathers in hats 

 were not ornamental, but, under the circum- 

 stances, repulsive. Coming to the humani- 

 tarian reasons, they knew that birds, 

 beautiful at all time, were pre-eminently 

 so at the breeding season ; and just when our 

 best feelings would induce us to give them a 

 close time they were ruthlessly destroyed. 

 The history of the Snowy Heron, from which 

 the so-called " ospreys " were obtained, 

 was especially pathetic. Mr. Pearson, of 

 the North Carolina Audubon Society, had 



