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where feathers and skins are “ faked up ” in a marvellous

manner for millinery purposes. There must be very many

thousands of them in the present exhibition, for the boxes of

small birds contain at least a hundred skins each, and include

even canaries and the little Bengalese. Like everything else

which comes from that country, they are the perfection of neat¬

ness in the way they are put up, and even down to the boxes

they are packed in. Every skin appears to be perfect, with not

a feather out of place, but all have that cjdiudrical form peculiar

to the Japanese prepared skins, caused by putting them in a

paper band before the skin is dry. A cap of fine rice paper is

also neatly folded over the head, with a small opening cut for the

bill to pass through. In each box a few are left unwrapped to

show the species. One cannot help thinking that, if this trade

is continued, Japan at no distant date will be quite denuded of

birds ; and she will find out her mistake when it is too late. I

am sure no one could more regret it than themselves, for the

Japanese are really fond of birds, and seem to understand the

treatment each kind requires in captivity much better than most

people do in England, and I have often thought we might go to

them for wrinkles.


Ecuador has a pretty little pavilion at the foot of the

Eiffel Tower, and might have sent an interesting collection of

bird skins, but I was prepared for disappointment there, as when

I was in the country last year I knew the Government was not

troubling itself much in that direction. No other country could

have sent so large and interesting a collection of humming birds

alone. The few badly mounted ones, in a large case of mixed

birds occupying the centre of the ground floor, are the commonest

ones to be found in the country, and they are so very badly put

up that it is difficult for one who knows them in life to recognise

them at all. The case also contains some of the long-tailed

Resplendent Trogons, which of course are not found in Ecuador.

I hope that no one who has seen the collection will for a moment

imagine that in life the beautiful Cocks of the Rocks (R.

sanguinolcntci) in the least resemble in shape and attitude those

that are mounted there. I see I did not mention these birds in

my Notes on Ecuador, and I don’t suppose any member of the

Society has had a chance of keeping any of the species alive,

which is a pity, as I know for a fact that perhaps few birds are

hardier or so easy to keep. The blood-coloured one is by far the

handsomest, then the R. pemviana, from Eastern Ecuador, and

lastly the R. crocea, from Guiana, which is also the smallest.



