BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



17 



glass, together with the little throat that 

 once swelled with song in the blue sky, of 

 which the silk may be a sentimental re- 

 minder. This spring novelty is "on sale 

 in nearly all the Department Stores in New 

 York City. We have also found them on 

 sale in Albany, and I have no doubt that 

 they are offered in many of the large cities 

 in this country. We have seen on them the 

 heads of Skylarks, Pipits, and Linnets." 

 It is difficult to believe that an English- 

 woman would appear in a " Chant icier 

 bow " ; but it would be unwise to speak 

 with certainty. In point of fact such a 

 decoration is no worse than the birds and 

 wings and " ospreys," and the heads and legs 

 of little furred beasts, which were seen every- 

 Avhere last winter, but, being new, it is a 

 trifle more sickening. 



It is not possible to say where these Lark 

 and Linnet heads came from ; they may be 

 the spoil of Sparrow Clubs ; at all events, 

 our American friends credit England with 

 the supply ; and their use, comments Mr. 

 Dutcher, " furnishes another reason why 

 Great Britain should pass some law to 

 prohibit her valuable birds being killed and 

 exported." 



Mr. Hamel Smith has been on the news- 

 paper warpath again respecting the New 

 York Plumage Bill. It was Mr. Smith who 

 some time ago suggested that instead of 

 seeking to deprive the poor Indian of his 



profits in hunting for " osprey " plumes 

 by prohibiting the entire traffic, the law 

 should establish a close-time for Herons, 

 thus throwing on the native any risk that 

 might accrue from killing the birds at the 

 only period when the " osprey " plume is 

 developed, while removing all hindrances 

 in the way of the European trader. Mr. 

 Smith still recommends " laws protecting 

 the birds during their breeding seasons, in 

 their native haunts, leaving the public, as 

 is done in England, a free hand at other 

 times " — the conditions of the remote forests 

 and jungles and morasses of a score of tropical 

 lands and islands where plume-birds are 

 killed being, it is to be inferred, just the 

 same as those of England, and our own 

 laws stopping, and in a most satisfactory 

 manner, at close-time protection ! Except 

 on these lines nothing, he adds, will ever 

 be done to protect the birds " as we want 

 them protected." Very likely. " Anyone 

 wlio has watched the so-called American 

 agitation," observes Mr. Hamel Smith [why 

 " so-called " American? — the agitation is also 

 European and Australasian], " must realise 

 that the trade there is pleased to see measures 

 passed to come into force a year hence. This 

 gives them time to dispose of their stock and 

 then force thepublic to buy up the new goods." 

 If Mr. Hamel Smith's friends will unite with 

 bird-lovers to pass Lord Avebury's Bill, to 

 come into force a year hence, the pleasure will 

 be mutual. 



PROTECTION OF MIGRATORY BIRDS. 



The protection of migratory birds in 

 Egypt forms the subject of an interesting 

 paper by Dr. Innes Bey in the Revue 

 Francaise d'Ornithologie for June. Speaking 

 from the economic standpoint Dr. Innes 

 describes the striking effect on the cotton 

 fields when in 1905 the slaughter of birds 

 on public lands on the coast was prohibited, 

 and these " precious auxiliaries " of agri- 

 culture consequently spread over the land 

 and destroyed the ravaging caterpillar. 



Carelessness in enforcing the law of bird- 

 protection brought back the plague, and in 

 the autumn of 1909 energetic steps were 

 once more taken. Dr. Innes urges that 

 the migrants should receive protection also 

 in the other countries on the African shores 

 of the Mediterranean. Among the species 

 largely killed and sold as Bec-figues he names 

 the Flycatcher, Willow Warbler, Redstart, 

 Wheatear, and Shrike. 



