ORNAMENTAL PLUMES 175 



of paradise plumes and gouras are going for a 

 mere song, and soon they will be gone from our 

 markets for ever. 



In Great Britain the feather war was even more 

 fiercely contested than in America, and was more 

 protracted. Canada had followed the example 

 of the United States in 1914, but the milliners of 

 England were more stubborn. For the last twenty 

 years a bill forbidding the importation of skins 

 or parts of skins for millinery purposes was an- 

 nually submitted to the House of Commons. And 

 each year it met with such organized opposition 

 that it was voted down. Both parties employed 

 extensive propaganda and the conflict proved 

 bitter. At last, however, a Plumage Bill was 

 forced through in 1921, which created a committee 

 to pass upon imported plumes. The first work 

 of the committee was to prohibit the bringing 

 in of virtually all feathers, and now the plumage 

 trade of Great Britain is almost at a standstill. 



With the great feather markets of England and 

 America closed to them, the business of plume 

 hunting is drawing to a rapid close. It no longer 

 is a profitable profession. When France with- 

 draws from the market, as she is expected soon to 

 do, the collectors will lay down their guns once for 

 all. But, even as the market stands to-day, birds 

 as a whole are assured of survival. 



