BIRD NOTES pimd NEWS. 



Jlssucb (Quarterly Inr tlje tlogal ^orictjr for tlje protection of giroa. 



Vol. III.— No. 4.] 



London : 3, Hanover Square, W. 



[DEC. 21st, 1908. 



THE IMPORTATION OF PLUMAGE PROHIBITION BILL. 



HE Autumn Session of Parliament 

 being entirely occupied by Govern- 

 ment business, no further progress 

 has been made with the Plumage 

 Bill since its first reading in the House 

 of Commons on July 22nd. Meanwhile 

 the trade, through the Textile Section of 

 the London Chamber of Commerce, have 

 memorialised the Chambers of Commerce 

 throughout the country to oppose the Bill, 

 and have sent to the Members of the House 

 a circular statement of their " objections," 

 which have been answered by the R.S.P.B. 

 with a " Reply to Objections."* Some 

 correspondence has also appeared in the 

 Times, from representatives of the trade on 

 one hand, and from Lord Avebury, Mr. 

 Buckland, and the Hon. Secretary of the 

 R.S.P.B. on the other. 



The interval has been further utilised for 

 a revival of the old story of " moulted 

 plumes." A good many years ago the 

 buyers of " ospreys " were asked to believe 

 that these were cast feathers, picked up in 

 China and elsewhere after the moulting of the 

 birds. But a more effective apology for the 

 sale of the plumes was found in the 

 " artificial osprey " legend, which has en- 

 joyed a long run despite the exposure of the 

 falsehood by men of science, and the fact 

 that no " artificial " osprey, so-called, has 

 ever passed the test of examination by ex- 

 perts at the British Museum (Natural 

 History). As none was presented to the 

 Select Committee of the House of Lords 

 this story has now perhaps had its day. It 

 is interesting therefore at the present juncture 

 to find the " moulted plume " turning up 

 again. It is reported from two or three 



* Copies can be had from the Society's office. 



vaguely indicated regions, and a letter dated 

 from Buenos Ayres is being circulated among 

 milliners and drapers describing more cir- 

 cumstantially the existence of estates in 

 Venezuela, where the birds are declared to 

 be protected, and their moulted feathers 

 picked up for the plume-market. The 

 writer of this letter recounts how he visited 

 the region of the Upper Orinoco in 1898- 

 1900, and found it difficult to procure 

 specimens of the Great White Heron even for 

 museums, so religiously were they guarded 

 by an armed native police employed by the 

 landowners ; the impression conveyed being 

 that these vast llanos, covered by the flood- 

 waters of the great river, resemble English 

 shooting preserves, where patrolling keepers 

 warn off the village poacher. Readers of 

 the letter are informed that the natives 

 paddle their canoes under the trees and pick 

 the feathers out of the water when they drop 

 from the moulting Herons ; while other 

 plumes, and these the best, are taken at the 

 end of the breeding time from the nests, the 

 birds having, it appears, developed a con- 

 venient practice of plucking these long bridal 

 trains from their own backs to work into the 

 fining of their nests. Another writer, also 

 professing personal knowledge on the same 

 subject, with equally well-intentioned 

 natural history describes the plumes as 

 growing on the bird's breast. 



There are two curious little facts that do 

 not weave very well into this narrative. 

 Ten years ago the Times published an article 

 dealing with the destruction of heronries in 

 America, and in reply, one " K. Thomson," 

 contended that the plumes came from 

 " Egret farms " — Egret farms presumably 

 resembling the preserves alluded to in 



