BIRD NOTES mo MEWS 



JIasuEiJ Q^uarterlii bv the lloijjil ^ocictj] for tljK protection of ^iriia. 



Vol. IV.— No. 4.] London : 23, Quken Anne's Gate, S.W. 



[DEC. 20, 1910. 



THE STORY OF BIRD PROTECTION— lY. 



CHECK liaving been given by Act 



of Parliament to tlie slaugliter of 



British sea-birds for the sake of 



tlieir A\ings, the next outbreak 



of feather-wearing was concerned chiefly 



w ith small birds. In the seventies and early 



eighties, Robins, Blackbirds, Swallows, and 



the like were in vogue with a certain class 



of society, but foreign species were coming 



more and more into tlie market ; means of 



transport ^\ere increasing and cheapening, 



and it was growing more profitable to employ 



hunters abroad to destroy the brilliant birds 



of the tropics, than to procure material in 



a civilized country where this senseless 



destiniction of bird-life was viewed with 



increasing disfavour. While legislation was 



drawing the protective cordon more closely 



round our home birds, tlie great forests 



and swamps of America, and vast regions 



in the East, teeming with a magnificent 



bird-life, had gro^^"n accessible ; and in such 



places there were no watchful eyes to observe 



the hunters' methods as Mr. Howard 



Saunders and others had noted them at home. 



In 1876 Professor Newton wrote to the 



Times (January 28th) to express liis horror, 



on perusing part of a catalogue of one of 



the London feather sales : 



" For I had no conception of the amount of 

 destruction to which exotic birds are condemned 

 by fashion — an amount which cannot fail speedily 

 to extirpate some of the fairest members of creation, 

 for I must preixiise for the benefit of your non- 

 ornithological readers that it is chiefly, if not solely, 

 at the breeding season that the most beautiful, 

 and tlierefore the most valuable feathers, are 

 developed in birds." 



In the same year the Baroness Burdett- 



Coutts remonstrated, also in the Times, 



against the use, or abuse, of Humming-birds, 



which were being introduced in profusion 



on hats, etc. Punch, too, uttered its pithy 



rebuke (February 19th, 1876) : 



The Bird Question. 



" Oh, would I wear a bird ! " 



Not if I were a lady. 



And a couple of years later (January 5th, 



1878) the Sage of Fleet-street drew contempt 



upon a fashionable wedding at wliich the 



bridesmaids appeared with a trimming of 



lioUy and Robins on their dresses, intimating 



his wish to give '"a trimming of his own to 



the unwomanly woman who devised it." 



Mrs. S. C. Hall and other writers had 

 deprecated the fashion in the earliest numbers 

 of the Animal World ; and the subject was 

 definitely brought to the fore by the 

 Tunbridge Wells S.P.C.A., so long associated 

 witli the name of Mrs. Edward Phillips, 

 after\\-ards one of the most influential pioneers 

 of the Society for the Protection of Birds. 

 Its Report for 1874 specifically named among 

 ways " in A\hicli all may lessen the sufferings 

 of animals," " by never using for dress or 

 ornament of any kind, birds, butterflies, or 

 sealskins." A more definite effort was at 

 hand. Ideas and plans for an association 

 or league of persons, banded together expressly 

 to resist the growing trade in plumage, were 

 forming in the minds of more than one 

 bird-lover. The Rev. F. O. Morris, the 

 Hon. Mrs. Boyle, and Mr. G. A. Musgrave 

 were severally considering the matter. In 

 August, 1885, Mr. Musgrave protested in the 

 Times, as Professor Newton had protested 



