25 



he on the quotations of the feather-markets, which the 

 dealers see that he duly receives." F. M. Chapman, in 

 "Bird Lore," August, 1906. 



The Impeyan Pheasant. 



" In some districts seems to have been extremely numerous 

 not so many years ago, but this is not so now, for the cocks have 

 been killed by thousands to meet the plume-market." (Newton, 

 " Dictionary of Birds.") Though exportation from India is 

 illegal, these skins continue to come into the auction-room, 



Egrets and Spoonbills. 



" It has long been our desire to include the White Heron 

 in the series of habitat groups (in the American Museum of 

 Natural History), but plume-hunters have brought this bird 

 so near the verge of extermination that our efforts to find a 

 rookery in which suitable studies might be made have been 

 fruitless. However, in February, 1907, information was 

 received of the existence of a colony. . . . When the ground 

 on which the rookery is situated was acquired by the club 

 now owning it, the plume-hunters had nearly exterminated 

 the aigrette- bearing Herons which formerly inhabited it in 

 large numbers. A few had escaped. ... A former plumer, 

 now chief warden in charge of the preserve, stated that both 

 the Snowy Egret and the Roseate Spoonbill were once found 

 in the region, but their complete annihilation left no stock 

 which, under protection, might have proved the source of 

 progeny." F. M. Chapman (Curator, American Museum of 

 Natural History, New York). 



London Feather=sales. 



In evidence prepared for the House of Lords Committee by the 

 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the following figures 

 were quoted from catalogues of the London Feather-sales, 

 as affording illustration of the numbers of skins and feathers 



