ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1197 



William Ingraham, in 1909, set free forty-seven 

 living greater birds of paradise, t^Paradisea 

 apoda). This is one of the species that is on 

 the high road to extermination on account of its 

 gorgeous golden-vellow i)lumes. 



The transplantation of a wild bird species 

 half way around the world to a new state of 

 self-support is necessarily a long shot, with a 

 limb in the way. In the colonization of any 

 wild species, nothing should be expected in less 

 time than ten years. With birds especially it 

 is the rule that of the colonized individuals, the 

 majority succumb to the enemies that every- 

 where beset bird life, and to the difficulties in- 

 volved in learning to live on utterly strange 

 food. 



Already there is noticeable a disposition to 

 pronounce Sir William's apoda experiment a 

 failure; but surely such a verdict would, to say 

 the least, be quite premature. In August, 1914, 

 Mr. Robert Herold. the caretaker of Little To- 

 bago, reported having seen four male birds, ten 

 females and one young of sex unknown. "There 

 may be two or three more," says he, "but there 

 are certainly no less." 



Now even that stock, already settled down 

 and known to be breeding, is sufficient to stock 

 the whole West Indies provided the birds can 

 survive. With such a foundation, apoda has on 

 Little Tobago much more than a fighting chance, 

 and we have a right to hope for the complete 

 success of that very plucky and well conducted 

 experiment. W. T. H. 



EGRET FARMING IN INDIA 



AT last there has appeared an item of reli- 

 able testimonv revealing an instance of 

 successful egret raising for plumes, and 

 the actual taking and marketing of a commer- 

 cial product in hand-reared "aigrette" feathers. 

 For fear that it may escape the attention of the 

 feather trade, we hasten to point it out. 



The Journal of the Bombay Natural History 

 Society, Vol. XXIII. No. 1, for June 30, 19li, 

 contains an illustrated article by Mr. George 

 Birch, Assistant Commissioner of Sind, N.-W. 

 India, setting forth the author's observations of 

 egret raising for plumage as now carried on bj' 

 the fisherfolk of the inland waters of that 

 province. 



In the village of Ber, on the edge of Chango 

 Lake, Larkana District (population about 200), 

 about 1,000 egrets are kept in captivity, and 

 regularly plucked of their plumes for the feather 



trade. The birds are kejjt in mat-enclosed run- 

 ways twenty feet by eight feet by eight feet, 

 very much as pheasants are kept. They are fed 

 on small fresh fish, so liberally supplied that the 

 birds eat to satietv. The birds are really tame, 

 and permit themselves to be seized and handled 

 by their owners, quite as such birds do in zoo- 

 logical gardens. 



The breeding season commences in March and 

 continues irregularly up to the end of Septem- 

 ber. "Eggs are laid never less than twice dur- 

 ing the season, and sometimes as many as four 

 or five times ; " and it takes twelve months for 

 a bird to reach maturity. The plumes are 

 plucked without injury to the birds, and in view 

 of the fact that the fish supply costs nothing 

 but human labor, the business is sufficiently lu- 

 crative to justify its existence. 



According to the statement of .Mr. Birch, the 

 people of Sind have apparently been about thir- 

 ty years in developing the industry he describes. 

 At all events, the Commissioner states that prior 

 to that period the natives killed the egrets in 

 order to secure their plumes ; and after they 

 began to keep the birds alive they very cruelly 

 blinded them by sewing uj) their eyes, to keep 

 them from escaping. 



Although Commissioner Birch does not state 

 how the birds seen by him are prevented from 

 fiying away, it is absolutely certain that they 

 must be pinioned as to the flight feathers of one 

 wing, for otherwise there would be no such 

 thing as keeping them in roofless enclosures, or 

 controlling them. 



The feather dealers of London and Paris, and 

 their scientific allies, have demanded that the 

 trade in the plumage of wild birds be continued 

 jjending efforts to supjily the market with "aig- 

 rettes" and paradise plumes derived from do- 

 mesticated birds. To this, the reply of the 

 Societe d' Acclimatation of Paris, and other 

 defenders of birds has been, that by the time 

 experiments could be made and bird farms es- 

 tablished yielding a world supply of plumes, all 

 the wild birds would be dead and past all help ; 

 which is literally and everlastingly true. 



Naturally, every bird protector would be glad 

 to see created a great bird-raising industry for 

 the supply of the fancy-feather markets of the 

 world; but the idea is Utopian, to say the least 

 of it ; and the proposal to continue the slaugh- 

 ter of wild birds until it is fully carried into 

 effect is utterly preposterous. The new indus- 

 try can best be stimulated by an immediate and 

 complete cessation of the traffic in the plumage 

 of wild birds. W. T. H. 



