BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



39 



mere miitter of taste there can be no doubt 

 about the matter. A live bird is a beautiful 

 thing, A dead bird is a very ugly thing. 

 Even when stuffed and in a glass case it is 

 a barely tolerable curiosity." Lady Mount- 

 Temple and the Hon. Mrs. Boyle became 

 joint secretaries, and everything promised 

 well for the " Plumage League." 



Following closely on the announcement 

 of the Broadlands league came the formation 

 of the " Selborne League," of which Mr. 

 Musgrave A\as the active spirit. This 

 advocated the use of the feathers of the 

 ostrich and of birds killed for food and 

 " as noxious pests." The coincidence of 

 the two societies was somewhat unfortunate. 

 The earlier association was in 1886 merged 

 in the Selbome, but the Selbome League 

 itself expanded shortly afterwards into the 



Selborne Society, in whose programme the 

 preservation of wild birds and the dis- 

 couragement of feather-wearing were 

 bracketed with otlier such excellent objects 

 as the preservation of all harmless wild 

 animals and plants, the protection of places 

 and objects of natural beauty, the promotion 

 of field-clubs, and tlie study of natural 

 history in general ; no personal pledge was 

 required from members, though presumably 

 it was implied. There ^\•as therefore again a 

 place vacant for a society which should 

 devote its attention exclusively to tiie 

 increasingly-important question of the pro- 

 tection and preservation of birds. 



In February, 1889, the Society for the 

 Protection of Birds came into existence. 



{To be continued.) 



UCT 



The Plume Trade. 



UcT 



It is not necessary to give any reply in 

 Bird Notes and Nevs^s to the various 

 statements and assertions put forth recently 

 by Plume-traders in an attempted defence 

 of the traffic in the plumage of ^ild birds. 

 Fe\^', if any, of these statements are new ; 

 most of them have been answered many 

 times by the R.S.P.B. ; and the facts must be 

 fairly well known to members of the Society. 

 Nor is this the place to answer attacks on 

 and innuendoes against the Society — 

 weapons natural enough where others are 

 defective. It is, however, interesting to notice 

 tliat the defence has been entirely switched 

 oif from the thoroughly discredited story of 

 the " artificial osprey," which deceived so 

 many credulous ladies, and is now centred 

 on the story of the Venezuelan " garceros." 

 It is the contention of the trade, our readers 

 will remember, that there are estates in 



Venezuela where Egrets are " protected " 

 and moulted feathers alone collected. On 

 these ideal areas the public eye is focussed, 

 much as though some slave-raider were to 

 exhibit pictures showing the happy lot of 

 " Some slaves I have known." 



From the notes on the history of Bird 

 Protection in the present number of Bird 

 Notes and News, it vnll be seen that for 

 more than thirty years the protest against 

 the trade in birds' feathers has been growing 

 stronger and more urgent ; and it has 

 come from men of science like Professor 

 Newton, Sir William Flower, and Sir Edwin 

 Ray Lankester, as well as from travellers 

 who have visited the lands despoiled, and 

 from persons of humanity and common- 

 sense, wlio have had the plain evidence of the 

 feather-sales. So long as the protest led to 

 no more than an ajjpeal to woman's sentiment, 



