BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



23 



or parts of the plumage of certain peculiarly orna- 

 mental birds which are offered for sale in this 

 country." — Country Life, May 23rd. 



" If the Select Committee to which the Bill has 

 been referred can give it a sound practical form, 

 every lover of nature will be gratified, and women 

 may be induced to look less like savages than they 

 do when decorated with the trophies of remorseless 

 slaughter." — Pall Mall Gazette, May 20th. 



" The excuse that women do not realise the 

 amount of cruelty practised on the most beautiful 

 and innocent of creatures in order that the dictates 

 of fashion may be followed, has been accepted long 

 enough. Every effort should be made to open their 

 eyes, but we believe that the only sure way of saving 

 the birds will be to pass the Bill." — Guardian, 

 May 27th. 



" A step is being taken in the right direction, a 

 blow is being struck at the root of the evil, for the 

 new Bill attacks those who, by supplying feathers, 

 foster a demand for such adornments." — Daily 

 Graphic (Mrs. Hugh Adams), May 21st. 



" To pass from the proposal to regulate our own 

 imports of the crueller bird ornaments to the asking 

 of foreign Governments to stop their exports is a 

 decided retreat. We shall be interested to hear 

 how the negotiations promised by Lord Beauchamp 

 proceed, but we trust that they will not in any way 

 hinder the passage of Lord Avebury's Bill through 

 Select Committee." — Daily News, May 20th. 



" There may be difficulties in working the Bill, 

 but it is certainly a step in the right direction, and 

 would prevent the perpetration of a vast amount of 

 ruthless barbarity." — Referee, May 22nd. 



" A measure that all humanitarians, as well as 

 all lovers of birdlife, will earnestly desire to see 

 become law." — Modern Society, May 23rd. 



" Lord Avebury deserves hearty support." — 

 Aberdeen Gazette, May 14th. 



" If women will not obey the dictates of humanity 

 of their own free will, it is time law stepped in to 



reader existing atrocities impossible." — Blackpool 

 Gazette, May 14th. 



" The demand in the Bill now before Parliament 

 is likely to meet with almost universal sympathy 

 and support." — Western Daily Press (Bristol), 

 May loth. 



" Whatever milliners and their fashionable 

 customers may think of Lord Avebury's Bill, there 

 can be no doubt that all right-feeling men and 

 women not blinded by a heartless vanity, will 

 sympathise with its objects." — Glasgow Evening 

 News, May 20th. 



" The critics of Lord Avebury's Bill suggest 

 that the slaughter can best be stopped locally by 

 such legislation for the protection of birds as we 

 have here at home. That is true enough, but the 

 English Parliament cannot make local legislatures 

 pass laws, while Parliament can stop the plumage 

 coming into the country. If Parliament does 

 decide to stop it, then the other legislatures can 

 pass their local laws or not, but England has set an 

 example." — East Anglian Times (Ipswich), May 

 20th. 



" Every reasonable exemption has been made, 

 and it is to be hoped that by the end of the present 

 Session of Parliament this much-needed measure 

 will have passed into law." — Liverpool Echo, 

 May 15th. 



" The wail of the wholesale feather trade, which 

 is beginning to be heard since the welcome to Lord 

 Avebury's Importation of Plumage Bill, gives one 

 unintentionally an excellent piece of news. For 

 it is an item of their gloom that nearly all the raw 

 skins and plumage used throughout the Continent 

 come into the London market in the first instance. 

 Of course it is possible that foreign countries 

 would obtain their supplies direct, but at least if 

 the Bill passes, the deplorable trade would be so 

 disorganized that it might never return to the 

 present appalling statistics of slaughter." — Man- 

 chester Guardian, May 27th. 



ucr usr The Plume Trade, ucr ^r 



The second and third of the year's Feather Sales 

 were held at the Commercial Sale Rooms on April 

 14th and June 10th. On both occasions there was 

 a numerous attendance of buyers, and "a good 

 demand " is reported. At the former there were 338 

 packages of " Osprey," chiefly East Indian and 

 Rangoon, and 270 Impeyan Pheasants. Some 6800 

 Birds-of-Paradise were catalogued. Among the 

 notable features of the sale were the great number 

 of Parrots (8299 entered by one firm), chiefly Indian 

 paroquets; the Kingfishers (8920), the Victoria and 

 Coronata Crowned Pigeons (1937 from one firm, 

 5350 by another), and over 15,000 Sooty Terns, the 



last-named having the trade name of " Dominoes." 

 At the June sale 15,500 Sooty Terns were again 

 catalogued. This no doubt means that some breed- 

 ing-place of the species has been raided and all the 

 birds killed. A number of other species of Tern 

 were also on sale. Kingfishers were in large 

 supply, selling at 3id. to 3^d. each. Impeyan Phea- 

 sants were 9s. 3d. each. Trogons 9d. to 2s. 7d., 

 Orioles l^d., Tanagers 4^d., Ruby Humming- 

 birds lAd. Victoria and Coronata Pigeons were 

 represented by over 8000 heads and crests. There 

 were 205 packages of " Osprey," mostly from Asia ; 

 and 6190 Birds-of-Paradise. 



