4 BORROWED PLUMES 



this country and the United States, in putting an end 

 to, or at least a check upon, that against which all 

 thoughtful lovers of nature protested as a nefarious 

 traffic. At the time when my former note was penned 

 1909 many of the State legislatures of America had 

 dealt with the matter, prohibiting the killing of certain 

 birds, the sale of their plumage, and even the use of 

 that plumage as an article of dress ; since then Congress 

 has passed an act extending prohibition to all the 

 States. To persuade the Imperial Parliament to regu- 

 late the plume trade by restricting the importation 

 and sale of feathers to those which, like the ostrich's, 

 can be taken without killing or mutilating birds reared 

 and domesticated for the purpose, and to the plumage 

 of birds killed for food, was one of the chief objects 

 to which that excellent and industrious naturalist, 

 Lord Avebury (better and longer known as Sir John 

 Lubbock), devoted the closing years of his life. Many 

 of us were so simple as to hope and believe that all 

 that was needed to secure legislation to that effect was 

 to explain and proclaim the character of the plume 

 trade, the devastation it wrought upon some of the 

 most beautiful and blameless of living creatures, and 

 the misery and suffering entailed upon such victims, 

 chiefly nestlings, which escaped massacre only to die 

 of starvation. We little knew the strength and extent 

 of the opposition awaiting any such measure. It was 

 twofold the organised resistance of the purveyors of 

 foreign plumes and the indifference of their chief 

 customers, who could not be got to feel any concern 

 for the approaching extermination of the white heron 



