6 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



desirable to have some law in this country controlling the 

 sale of the skins of certain foreign wild birds, especially as it 

 appears not to be sufficient to have restrictions in their 

 native land. Thus, though an Australian law forbids the 

 export of the plumage of the emu and certain other rare 

 birds, more than 1,000 emu skins were catalogued for sale 

 in London in 1909. Some humming birds have already 

 become extinct. In Trinidad the number of species has been 

 reduced from 18 to 5. A heavy duty would, perhaps, answer 

 the purpose, and might have a secondary advantage of 

 relieving some of the burden of the income tax ! Attempts 

 have been made by interested parties to make the public 

 believe that the beautiful egret plumes are artificial, or that 

 they are plumes which have been moulted by the birds, or 

 that they are taken from the lining of the nests, but it has been 

 clearly proved that all these statements are false and that 

 enormous numbers of the parent birds are sacrificed at breed- 

 ing time for the sake of these feathers, which are then in their 

 best condition, causing thereby the death by starvation of 

 innumerable fledgelings. I do not know whether neolithic 

 ladies are responsible for the extinction of ostriches in India 

 and some other parts of Asia, where semi-fossil remains have 

 been found and where ancient native writings mention them ; 

 but more modern ladies are, I fear, responsible for their 

 absence from Egypt and Nubia, where they formerly existed 

 in a wild state. Our list of birds has lately been enriched 

 by the separation of a new species (Parus hibernicus) of cole-tit, 

 which differs from the usual form in having the white replaced 

 by yellow, and in some other respects ; but it remains to be 

 seen whether it will continue to keep its position as a distinct 

 species or be looked upon as a local variety. This form is 

 found in some parts of Ireland. Many moths, to take the 

 group I am most familiar with, differ greatly in different 

 localities but could not be called separate species. The causes 

 of these differences are usually obscure and little understood, 

 though much discussed. The organised attempt to discover the 

 winter habitat of migratory birds by marking them with 



