Vol. VII 



■ I Great Foywayd Movement in Bird Protection. 87 



At this juncture the recently formed "Advisory Committee re 

 Fisheries and Game Acts of Victoria," led by Professor W. Baldwin 

 Spencer, C.M.G., F.R.S., formed a deputation to wait upon the 

 Hon. the Prime Minister (Mr. Deakin) with regard to the prohibition 

 of the exportation of the skins and plumes of birds used for pur- 

 poses of ornamentation. This appeared to anticipate the work of 

 the Australasian Ornithologists' Union, which was a Commonwealth 

 association, was already well forward with the movement of bird 

 jn-otection, was in touch with the Prime Minister in the matter, and 

 committed to certain lines of action, therefore the Council felt that 

 it could not sink its individuality in a State or local concern, 

 and it was arranged that the Council's deputation should appear 

 together with the deputation of the Victorian Advisory Committee 

 before the Prime Minister. The following is an account, as reported 

 in The Avians (5/8/08), of the joint deputation : — 



"A powerful deputation, representing all the ornithologists' societies in 

 Australia, waited upon the Prime Minister (Mr. Deakin) yesterday, to urge 

 that the Commonwealth should take action to prevent the destruction of 

 Australian birds. 



" Professor Baldwin Spencer said that action had been taken in the 

 United States. The State of New York had forbidden the importation of 

 bird skins and plumage. The best action that the Commonwealth could 

 take would be to prohibit the exportation of bird plumes and skins. 



" Mr. A. J. Campbell, vice-president of the Australasian Ornithologists' 

 Union, said that the president (Mr. Le Souef) was too ill to be present. 

 Under section 52 of the Customs Act it needed only a proclamation to 

 prohibit the importation of skins and plumes. There might be some trouble 

 about prohibiting the e.xportation, but they trusted that the Prime Minister 

 would devise some means of doing it. 



"Mr. A. H. E. Mattingley, honorary secretary of the Union, said that the 

 deputation's request applied to Papua and Australia. They wanted to check 

 the wanton destruction of some of the most useful Australian birds, that 

 were slaughtered principally to form millinery for ladies. At an auction 

 sale held in London there were catalogued 28,600 skins of Birds-ofT^aradise, 

 the nesting plumes of thousands of Egrets, an immense number of ordinary 

 plumed birds, a large number of Lyre-Birds' tails, Crested Pigeons, and 

 Kingfishers. The London sales accounted for 20,000 Kingfishers alone, and 

 this took no account of private sales or sales in other parts of the world. 

 Australian birds possessed the fatal gift of beautiful plumes, and were 

 ruthlessly slaughtered. 



" Surgeon-General Williams, representing the New South Wales societies, 

 said that he was an observer of the Herons, to which the Egrets belonged. 

 He knew them to be of the greatest practical value to squatters, farmers, 

 and all who had to do with the conservation of water. 



" Mr. E. B. Nicholls, of the Bird Observers' Club, said that 200,000 Ibis 

 nested together in one district. On examination of the stomach of one, 

 2,400 immature grasshoppers and a number of snails were found in it. That 

 meant that one colony of Ibis was responsible for the destruction of 480 

 million grasshoppers. 



" Mr. F. R. Godfrey said he had been told of hundreds of Blue Wrens 

 being seen in one box in one shop. It was terrible that this destruction 

 should be allowed to go on. He noticed a distinct lessening in the bird 

 life in the country. 



" Mr. Keartland, of the Field Naturalists' Club, said that one State was 

 played oft against another. In Melbourne it was said that Lyre-Birds' tails 

 were got in New South Wales, while in Sydney it was said they were 



