ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

 BULLETIN 



Published by the New York Zoological Society 



Vol. XVII 



JANUARY, 1914 



Number 1 



A RESULT OF OUR VICTORY 0^•ER THE FEATHER TRADE 



DURING the recent struggle in the United 

 States Senate for the exchision of wild- 

 bird millinery, the friends of the birds 

 persistently maintained that the closing of our 

 market would inevitably result in a marked 

 diminution in bird slaughter. We claimed that 

 with our ports tightly closed, the quota of birds 

 annually slaughtered for the American market 

 hereafter would not be killed. We did not, 

 however, anticipate the quick confirmation of 

 our views that has reached us. 



From Mr. James Buckland, of London, one 

 of the foremost champions of the birds against 

 the British feather trade, we have received a 

 set of the catalogues of the London feather auc- 

 tion of October 14, 1913, carefully annotated 

 as to sales, prices and withdrawals from sale. 

 They show that exactly ten days from the sign- 

 ing of our tariff law by President Wilson, the 

 London feather market suffered a tremendous 

 decline. Out of 1174 lots that were offered, 

 368 had to be withdrawn, because of bad 

 prices and no buyers. 



It is with much interest that we have made 

 a complete summary of the contents of the ])rin- 

 cipal lots that had to be withdrawn because of 

 the closing of the American market. The list 

 is as follows: 



SKIXS AND FEATHERS L'XSAL.VBLE 

 LOXDOX OX OCTOBER 14, 1913. 



1203 skins of Greater Bird-of-Paradise. 



127 " Rifle Bird-of-Paradise. 



761 " F;mu. 



1212 " Eared Pheasant, ("Namidr). 



1237 " Lady Amherst Pheasant. 



IX 



Today, Germany is much disturbed by the 

 contest between the defenders of the birds and 

 the German millinery trade. Professor C. G. 

 Schillings is vigorously agitating, but he is ha- 

 rassed by lack of funds, and apathy on the part 

 of manv German ornithologists and zoologists. 

 Apparently the German zoological societies are 

 doing nothing; and on the other hand, the mil- 

 linery trade is well organized, well financed and 

 ably led. The apathy of the bird-lovers of Ger- 

 many is truly amazing. As in England, the 

 feather trade is seeking to throw dust in the 

 eyes of the people by solemn talk about "ex- 

 perimenting" and "colonizing" and "breeding" 

 plume birds for the feather trade. This may 

 deceive many ignorant persons, but all those 

 who know something about wild birds are well 

 aware of the fact that years before any such 

 experiments could by any possibility succeed, 

 the wild "plumage" birds would all be dead — 

 unless given absolute protection immediately. 



