BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



77 



In 1908-9 an attempt to export by train 823 

 Jungle-Fowl skins was detected at Castle Rock. 



In Madras : — 



Diu-ing the year 1907-8 ten cases of attempted 

 exportation of "' Osprey " feathers were detected. 



In concluding, Mr. Dodsworth recom- 

 mends further measures in India to stop the 

 export from one Indian port to another, and 

 to proliibit the possession of feathers except 

 in reasonable quantities ; and he also urges 

 that no heed should be paid to deputations 

 and memorials bringing forward absurd 

 objections, such as birds dropping their 

 feathers naturally — or 1| milhons of people 

 being deprived of their means of livelihood — 

 or the prohibitions not affording the least 

 protection to birds, etc. No thing short of 

 international law will perhaps ever accom- 

 plish the complete protection of the birds, 

 " but it is obvious that Governments can no 

 longer countenance so pernicious a trade." 



"BIRD PROTECTION AND THE 

 FEATHER-TRADE." 



In curious contrast to Mr. Dodsworth's 

 straightforward statement of facts, is a 

 pamphlet bearing the name of Dr. A. 

 Menegaux, assistant in the Natural Histor}^ 

 Museum, Paris (London : Sampson Low). 

 Ostensibly devoted to a consideration of 

 Bird Protection, this is mainly a re-dressing 

 of old stories which have been served up 

 repeatedly by the feather-trade, and dis- 

 proved time after time. The writer, or 

 compiler, whose description on the title- 

 page might have inspired some hopes of 

 scientific exactitude, at once disqualifies 

 himself by ignoring all ornithological 

 authorities on the subject of the plume- 

 trade, and quoting and rehdng upon the 

 statements of persons like M. Leon Laglaize, 

 and other mouth-pieces of the trade. No 

 personal knowledge of this subject is either 

 displayed or claimed, and it is very apparent 

 that there has not been any enquiry or 



investigation. The question at issue is 

 confused and complicated (in the manner 

 usually adopted by the trade) by the ad- 

 mixture of irrelevant matter ; Mr. Walter 

 Rothschild and other ornithologists being 

 quoted as to the extinction of certain species, 

 in order to prove that the Dodo and the 

 Great Auk were not exterminated for 

 millinery purposes ; and the whole thing 

 reads oddly like a trade pamphlet, crammed 

 with sophistries and apologetics and twisted 

 logic, into which has been shaken a portion 

 of a museum lecture on the preservation 

 of birds. 



On the question itself, M. Menegaux 

 has nothing new to say. He tells us that 

 '" exotic species form a very small part of 

 the bulk " of feathers used in the trade. 

 Has M. Menegaux ever studied the reports 

 of travelled naturalists, or read a trade 

 catalogue ? Or would it really affect the 

 necessity for protecting Wliite Herons, if 

 it could be shown that for every Heron 

 slaughtered on its nest, the wings of two 

 spring-chickens were also used for hats ? 

 We are further told that manufacturers 

 imitate " White Heron plumes, and the 

 crests, wings, and whole bodies of Goura 

 Pigeons." Is M. Menegaux not aware that 

 every story of a manufactured Heron-plume 

 has proved a lie ? and can he explain why 

 the Goura Pigeons have had to be protected 

 by stringent laws to prevent their exter- 

 mination by plume-hunters ? By the use 

 of the feathers of domestic poultry in France, 

 it is asserted, by-products formerly wasted 

 have found a market worth " millions of 

 pounds " a year. Very well, then ; let 

 the manufacturers encourage this work by 

 joining in the effort to prevent the slaughter 

 and importation of exotic birds. 



Again, we are told once more that the 

 trade do not want rare birds, but those 

 that are " readilv obtainable " ; that the 



