63 



CHAPTER THE SIXTH. 

 SMUGGLING. 



The writer of " The Feather Trade " asserts : 



" I can assure you, most solemnly, that the trade has no agents who 

 are known or encouraged to poach upon preserves or reservations. That 

 such poaching goes on is undoubted. Men who are working in the virgin 

 lands where wild birds are plentiful will kill what they can, where they 

 can, and when they can, and they will make the best use they can of the 

 plumages, whether there is or is not a market." 



If there were no market for plumages, what would be " the 

 best use " of them ? It is not within common experience that 

 the existence of receivers is unconnected with the business of 

 thief. Whether or not the trade directly control the invasion 

 of preserves and the breaking of export laws, it is certain that 

 they receive the goods so obtained, and receive them under such 

 conditions that they cannot even allege ignorance. 



In 1902 the Government of India made the export of skins 

 and plumes from India illegal* Naturalists and others interested 

 in the matter saw with surprise that in spite of this prohibition 

 the feathers of birds peculiar to the East Indies, and of others 

 strongly suspected to come from thence, continued to be offered 

 for sale in Mincing Lane. 



How Bird- Feathers Come from India. 



The explanation of this was furnished by the Board of Customs 

 to the House of Lords Committee in 1908. It then appeared that 

 between December 20th, 1907, and February 15th, 1908, twenty- 

 three cases of dead bird-skins from India were imported as 

 cowhair or horsehair ; that in March, 6,400 further skins were 

 imported hidden under a layer of horsehair, and described as 

 horsehair ; that " osprey " feathers from India were sent by 

 parcel post, declared as dress material ; that smuggling was also 

 carried on by way of the Straits Settlement, in order to evade 

 examination by the Customs officers. 



It does not appear that the trade at this end refused to receive, 

 to sell, or to make their profit on these smuggled goods. At the 



