72 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



that there was no means of preventing the destruc- 

 tion of plume birds, since one State was played off 

 against another. 



" Following this deputation, a conference was 

 held under the auspices of the A.O.U. and attended 

 by delegates of the Federal States, who, in the 

 result, agreed to advise their respective Governments 

 of the need of unification of the Game Laws of the 

 Commonwealth. 



" From the foregoing you will perceive that the 

 cause of bird protection has been strenuously upheld 

 here, and that we are in accord with the high aims 

 and noble principles of your Society in the Mother 

 Country." 



The Administrator of Papua (British New 

 Guinea) has enacted an Ordinance, dated 

 December 9th, 1908, which prohibits the 

 capture or destruction of Birds-of-Paradise 

 and Goura Pigeons at any time ; the buying 

 or selling of the birds or their skin or 

 plumage ; the export of the birds, skin, 

 or plumage without written consent from 

 the officer of customs. It empowers officers 

 of constabulary or customs to search a 

 suspected house, vessel, or place, and to 

 open any suspected box or parcel ; and it 

 authorizes a fine of £100 or six months' 

 imprisonment for a first offence, and twelve 



months, without the option of a fine, for 

 subsequent offences. Certain permits may 

 be granted, and other birds may be added to 

 the schedule. 



The Plumage Bill of the Audubon Society 

 of New York State, whereby no wild birds or 

 their skin or plumage may be taken or 

 possessed, except under authority of a 

 certificate, irrespective of whether the bird 

 was captured or killed within or without the 

 State, has failed to pass the Assembly, owing 

 to trade opposition. Such a Bill has been 

 passed in a number of States with excellent 

 results, and comes into operation in the 

 State of California on June 17th, 1909. 



The Chairman of the National Association 



of Audubon Societies has addressed a letter 



to the Secretary of State of the United States, 



in which he says : — ■ 



" The object of this letter is to ask whether it 

 would not be feasible and proper for this Govern- 

 ment to co-operate with Great Britain in its efforts 

 to regulate the traffic in the plumage of wild birds. 

 As this matter at the present time is taking such 

 hold of the public throughout the world, we think 

 the time is ripe for such action, at least to the extent 

 of calling for an International Conference on the 

 subject." 



usr ^cr usr Notes, usr ^xsr usr 



PLUME BIRDS OF NEW SOUTH 

 WALES. 



Mr. J. W. R. Clarke, of Sydney, sends the 

 following : 



"On Sunday morning, 28th February 1909, 

 preaching at Mosman, a well-known watering-place 

 suburb near Sydney, the Rev. James Green, M.A., 

 of Ballina, said that he came from a region famous 

 for the beauty of its scenery. In the ' Big Scrub ' 

 of the Richmond River District were to be seen 

 masses of stag-horns, elk-horns and ferns. Among 

 the branches of the giant fig-trees festoons of vine 

 trail from tree to tree, and orchids which in London 

 would be almost priceless are fairly common. In 

 the past this magnificent foliage was lit up with the 

 flashing plumage of native birds, such as the Regent 

 Bird in its gold and black, the Satin Bower Bird, 

 green Pigeons, and innumerable bright-hued Finches 

 and Wrens. But now it was a rare thing to see 

 these birds, and in three years he had seen the 

 Regent Bird only about half-a-dozen times. When 

 he came down to Sydney he could see them; but 

 they were dead ; they were on women's hats. The 

 visitor from the north coast would see more of this 



beautiful plumage in King Street and Pitt Street 

 in milliners' shops than might be seen in days of 

 travel through the scrub. The ladies present, 

 remarked the speaker, would understand that there 

 were times when words failed the preacher and he 

 could only think." 



It is a suggestive picture : a comment on 

 the trade figment that dealers have " no use " 

 for rare birds. They only desire to make 

 them rare, to tear away the flashing wings 

 from scrub and forest and mere until it will 

 no longer li pay" to hunt them. For the 

 living glory of the earth, gone for ever, men 

 shall see for a season a repulsive jumble of 

 stiffened and distorted feathers bedizening 

 women's hats ; while a miserable remnant of 

 the hunted birds that no longer "pay" hide 

 in the thickest jungle and the uttermost 

 morass. 



