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CHAPTER THE FIFTH. 



EXPORTATION FROM INDIA. 



Mr. Downham says that the action of the Society for the 

 Protection of Birds in " obtaining " the Notification issued by 

 the Government of India in 1902, " can hardly be criticized too 

 severely," and adds that " no greater act of ' smuggling ' in 

 connexion with this trade has ever been perpetrated than in 

 obtaining the issue of the Notification prohibiting the export 

 of plumage and bird-skins." 



Bird Protection in India. 



The facts are these : The question of the protection of wild 

 birds in India, irrespective of the game question, was opened by 

 a letter addressed to the Government of Madras by Surgeon- 

 General Bidie, C.I.E., F.Z.S., in 1881. He brought to notice the 

 indiscriminate slaughter of birds, for the sake of their plumage, 

 which was taking place throughout the Madras Presidency, and 

 claimed protection for these helpless creatures mainly in the 

 interests of agriculture. 



The Government of Madras, in forwarding this letter to the 

 Government of India, remarked that they were alive to the 

 necessity of the adoption, in the interests of agriculture, of some 

 vigorous measures to control the destruction of birds, which 

 appeared to be going on throughout India, and they, therefore, 

 deemed the matter worthy of consideration with a view to a 

 general Act being passed. In 1884 the East India Association 

 of London passed a resolution declaring it very advisable that 

 some regulations should be framed and put in force for protecting 

 the wild birds of India. In 1887 a Wild Birds Protection Act 

 was passed, which, though insufficient, was regarded as the fore- 

 runner of a more complete measure. It empowered Local 

 Governments to make rules prohibiting the possession or sale 

 during its breeding season of any kind of wild bird recently killed 



