ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLKTIN 



"5 



tiic lew uncxplurfil laiuls kit to the naturalist 

 and explDRT. 



Even ti) tiiis distant land the des]iieal)lr plume 

 hunter has penetrated, and (or years wrought his 

 custoinary liavoc among the more brilliant water- 

 fowl. 



Putting to shanu- our delayed legislati\e acts 

 fcir the pr. iteetiiin mI .,ur liirds. Dr. I'',niil A. 

 (loeldi, Director ol the .Museum at I'ara, Brazil, 

 several years ago presented two •• memorials" to 

 the Governor and the legislature of the .State of 

 Para, "Against the Destruction c,f White Herf)ns 

 and Red Ibises on the Lower Amazon." These 

 are written in a masterly manner, with the dee]) 

 and sincere feeling of a lo\er of Nature whr> 

 looks into the future and fortsees the desolation 

 of a birdless world. 



In his memorial Dr. Goeldi first calls attention 

 to the beauty of the white herons and scarlet 

 ibises. "Can there be a scene of Nature, a land- 

 scape more picturesque, than the inargin of one 

 of our lakes tliat is solemnly guarded by an in- 

 terminable file of those white forms which, on 

 our approach, dissolves into a cloud of snow, 

 carried at times in a spiral, as if dri\en by a 

 strong blast of wintl .' 



"There are men who do not hesitate * * * to 

 slaughter hecatombs of these superb creatures, 

 to pluck out a few paltry feathers, of which it is 

 necessary to get thousands in order to weigh a 

 single kilogramme of the horrible inerchandise. ' 



In speaking of the habit which these birds 

 have of coming long distances from the upper 

 Amazon to feed and nest on cirtain lavorite 

 islands near tlie mouth of the riwr. Dr. Cioildi 

 says, the remembrance of these places has become 

 an intellectual property, received by inheritance. 

 "Consequently the horrible carnage produced 

 by the feather dealers * * * affects not only the 

 herons that normally li\-e on the said island, but 

 the herons of a vast region of the .\niazon in 

 general, " 



He then states that the herons eat dead fish 

 and offal, as well as living food, and thus are 

 valuable scavengers. 



He advocates a short open season for herons, 

 if the nefarious hunting cannot be altogether 

 prohibited, and a heavy tax on exported plumes. 



In tlie second "memorial" he says there is a 

 "manifest lessening of s^ame in the sfiuthern 



portion ot Hra/il,"and he cpiotes from a tr.i .Her 

 who .says, " I know little bays which lor ; rly 

 were white with herons, and today it is hi 1 to 

 find there a single bird." 



We are tokl that two hundreil thousantl tlollars 

 Worth o| herons' plumes are annually exported 

 (roni I'ara. In advocating a heavy tax he says, 

 ■■ I'.Nport rubber pays a duty, farm products pay 

 a duty, and everything that re|)resents the fruit 

 of sweat antl honest labor pa}s a duty, wliile this 

 abominable merchandise, that is the spurious 

 offspring of idleness and murder, goes out scot 

 free. " 



In the last lew paragraphs he sets forth an 

 entirely new phase ol bird protection, which 

 merits serious consideration. 



He says, "with tlie increasing p/crv!;<i/iiiuu\j 

 (veil 1,7 xi/ vcihiif ) of the female sex *** were 

 not the ostriclu's thri'atened with extermina- 

 tion } " .\nd this problem is solveti permanently 

 by ostrich larms. He cites the South American 

 Indians who were noted lor their feather-work, 

 and who took |irecLiution to breed macaws and 

 parrots to lurnish material lor their work. 



Then lollows a brief from the CJiTman jour]ial 

 Gaiicnlaube on the subject of " Heron Farming." 

 The following is worthy of note. A gentleman 

 in Tunis built a large voliere or flying cage, and 

 stocked it with tliirty young herons, which bred 

 with great raiiidity, in a eom]iarati\eh- short 

 time increasing to three hundred ami eight v- 

 .seven birds. The flesh of dead horses and 

 donkeys is fed to them. Twice a year they are 

 deplumed, each bird yielding six grammes of 

 feathers, resulting in a remarkable net profit, as 

 heron plumes by weight are almost twice as val- 

 uabU' as gold. 



The success of ostrich farming is attested hy 

 the Ca]n- of (iood II.,]ie outjiut which in 1895 

 yiehli-d the sum of $106, 000, 000. 



If the experiment of the gentleman in Tunis 

 was a |Uirely speculative one, and \et was suc- 

 cessful, what results may we not ultimately hope 

 for in the Zoc)IogicaI Park in colonizing some of 

 our vanishing species of birds, inspired, as we 

 would be, by the thought that these individuals 

 are the sole living representatives of their kind ! 



