No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 211 



International Bird Protection. 



One of the signs of the times which shows a public appre- 

 ciation of the value of birds is an international movement 

 for bird protection in which nearly all the principal nations 

 of the world are represented. A conference of representa- 

 tives from America and practically all European countries 

 took place in Berlin in 1910. One good result of this con- 

 ference was to bring out the fact that bird protection work 

 had begun in Italy and other countries in which the people 

 are very destructive to bird life. The movement for bird 

 protection in those countries has much significance to us here, 

 for immigrants from them are continually coming to our 

 shores. Better laws and better sentiment for the protection 

 of birds in European countries will tend in time to lessen the 

 destruction of our birds here by these immigrants, and the 

 work of the Audubon societies in the schools of America is 

 designed to interest the children of immigrants in bird pro- 

 tection here. The international movement for bird protec- 

 tion eventually will help to stop the traffic in the plumage of 

 birds, wdiich is perhaps the most destructive factor to bird 

 life to-day. The Australian and Indian governments have 

 prohibited the exportation of the plumage, skins or eggs of 

 native birds. Other countries already have passed such laws, 

 but statutes forbidding the importation of foreign birds are 

 now necessary, ^o matter how well we may protect the birds 

 in this country they will be killed and smuggled out of the 

 country for millinery , purposes so long as they can be legally 

 imported into other countries and sold there. And so long 

 as our people are allowed to import and sell the feathers of 

 foreign birds, these l)irds will be destroyed in countries where 

 it is illegal to take them and their skins will be shipped here. 

 Mr. James Buckland, who has been active in England and 

 Germany in the attempt to establish laws prohibiting the 

 importation of plumage, writes me on December 29 that he 

 believes the German government Mnll be the first Euro- 

 pean power to pass an act prohibiting the importation of 

 plumage. It is hoped that England and America will follow. 



