Feathers and Facts. 



PART I. 



THE STORY OF THE PLUME-TRADE. 



THE facts concerning the trade in birds and their feathers for 

 millinery purposes have been repeatedly stated by the Royal 

 Society for the Protection of Birds and by kindred Societies in 

 Europe, America (North and South), India and other parts of the 

 world. Now that there is a fair prospect of a law being obtained 

 to prohibit the importation into Great Britain of the plumage 

 of species which are being destroyed solely for their feathers, the 

 " Trade," alarmed at the threatened loss of their profits, are 

 industriously engaged in scattering their letters, circulars, 

 and pamphlets broadcast over the country. 



It therefore becomes necessary to recapitulate the facts, in 

 reply to the statement of defence in their latest publication 

 " The Feather Trade " * ; to deal yet once more with their old 

 mis-statement?, and with such of their new assertions as have 

 any bearing on the subject. Much that is irrelevant is introduced 

 by writers representing the trade ; much about the spread of 

 civilization as a cause of the extirpation of birds, and much in 

 denunciation of pheasant preservation and of big-game hunting 

 in Africa. 



The question to be dealt with is the destruction of wild- bird life 

 by plume- hunters. This is infinitely the greatest cause, probably 

 of any, certainly of any of the preventable causes of the destruc- 

 tion of wild- bird life throughout the world. 



* " The Feather Trade : The Case for the Defence." By C. F. Downham. 

 (Sciama & Co.). 



