23 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



(b) anything done by virtue of a licence issued 



from time to time by the Board of Trade 

 under such conditions and regulations 

 as they may prescribe for the purpose 

 of supplying specimens of any birds 

 not included in the schedule to any 

 natural history or other museum or 

 for the purpose of scientific research ; 

 or 



(c) the plumage, skin, or body, or any parts 



thereof, of any bird not included in the 

 schedule to this Act and forming part 

 of the wearing apparel being bon't fide 

 the property of and either actually in 

 the use of or accompanying any person 

 entering the United Kingdom ; or 

 (</) the plumage of any bird not included in 

 the schedule to this Act imported or 

 brought into the United Kingdom for 

 use solely in the manufacture of flies 

 for the capture of any species of fish. 



Schedule. 



BIRDS EXEMPTED. 



1. Ostriches. 



2. Eider Ducks. 



The minutes of evidence have been pub- 

 lished in a Parliamentary Blue Book, which 

 can be obtained, price 6d., through any book- 

 seller, and it is therefore only necessary here 

 to give a few extracts from statements made 

 by witnesses, pro and con., on points of special 

 interest to readers of Bird Notes and 

 News, with some fuller details of the evidence 

 supplied by Mr. Montagu Sharpe on behalf 

 of the R.S.P.B. 



The questions asked, where no other name 

 is given, were put by the Chairman of the 

 Committee. 



THE ANTI-PLUMAGE MOVEMENT. 



Mr. Montagu Sharpe : Thirty years ago (January 

 28th, 1870) Professor Alfred Newton, Professor of 

 Zoology at Cambridge University, chairman of the 

 Bird Protection Committee British Association, 

 protested in the " Times " against the enormous 

 sales of birds' feathers held in London, and 

 especially against the quantities of Heron and 

 Egret plumes, and of Humming birds. In 1887 

 a series of papers appeared in the " Auk " (the 

 organ of the American Ornithologists' Union), 

 in which Mr. W. E. D. Scott drew attention to the 

 vast destruction of Egrets, Spoonbills, Ibises, Terns, 

 and other birds, in Florida, by the plume-hunters. 

 The subject was again alluded to by Professor 

 Newton in his "Dictionary of Birds" (1893), 

 where he says (in article on " Extermination ") : 

 ' Unless laws to stop it " {i.e., " this detestable 



devastation ") "be not only passed but enforced, 

 it will go on till it ceases for want of victims." In 

 1899 (February 25th) he wrote a further letter to 

 the " Times " on the destruction of Egrets and 

 Birds of Paradise, in which he observed that in 

 many cases " no protective law can be of the least 

 use in staying the slaughter, for there is no local 

 authority to enforce it." 



Chairman : Then I think, at the suggestion of 

 your Society, I asked a question on the subject 

 of military plumes in the House of Commons ? — 

 Yes, the Society had in 1898 submitted a statement 

 to the Commander-in-Chief (Lord Wolseley) ; in 

 September, 1899, an Army Order was approved 

 by Her Majesty Queen Victoria, discontinuing the 

 use of " osprey " plumes by officers of the Hussar 

 and Rifle Regiments, and approving the use of 

 plumes of ostrich feathers in their place. In 1900 

 the Government of India issued a Circular to all 

 the local Governments and Administrations with 

 reference to the protection of wild birds in India. 

 As a result of this enquiry, the Government issued 

 an Ordinance in 1902 {Customs Circular No. 13, 

 of 1902) prohibiting the exportation from British 

 India of skins and feathers of all birds, except 

 feathers of ostriches and skins and feathers exported 

 bon \ fide as specimens of natural history. 



EXPORT AND IMPORT. 



Mr. Montagu Sharpe : The prohibition of ex- 

 port will never be entirely successful while a lucra- 

 tive market remains open in London. We welcome 

 and are very glad indeed of the Indian legislation, 

 but there is always smuggling going on, and there 

 always will be. Moreover, a very large proportion 

 of birdskins come from countries where it is at 

 present utterly hopeless to look for the imposition 

 of laws for the protection of birds, or for the pro- 

 hibition of the export of skins. 



You would like to see three measures of pre- 

 servation of birds : (1) Laws prohibiting the killing 

 of certain birds ; (2) Laws prohibiting the export 

 of plumage ; and (3) Laws prohibiting the import ; 

 and you would like to see them co-existent ? — If 

 they were all in operation I should think the 

 destruction would be reduced almost to nil. 



Mr. Frank E. Lemon : I consider that the ex- 

 port laws of some of our Colonies and India would 

 be greatly assisted if some such Bill as this were 

 passed. South Australia has an export law, so 

 also have the Bahamas, British Guiana and Cyprus. 

 There were others mentioned in the House of Lords, 

 the Bermudas, Barbados, Trinidad, Fiji, Natal, 

 and St. Vincent. With regard to British Guiana, 

 we have recently had some correspondence with 

 the Governor there, and we were able to tell him 



