1104 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



skins of over 25,000 humming birds were catalogued, and sold for a penny 

 or three half pence each. The shore birds of the Atlantic Coast of the 

 United States which formerly were found in incredible numbers have only 

 oeen saved from complete annihilation by the timely appointment of 

 wardens. The poaching in these regions has assumed so serious an aspect 

 that quite recently three of the wardens have been murdered while dis- 

 charging their duties. In the lake district of Southern Oregon — the nursery 

 of immense flocks of migrating waterfowl of the Pacific Coast — hundreds of 

 tons of ducks were found, by an Official of the Biological Survey, to have 

 been killed for their green wing feathers, and the bodies thrown away. 

 White Herons, Swans, Pelicans, Ibises, Terns, and other species too numer- 

 ous to mention, were all butchered in a like way, and for a like paltry 

 purpose. 



Realising that wild birds constitute a valuable asset to the countries 

 which possess them, various legislative measures have been taken by our 

 overseas possessions to protect bird life, but all these well meaning efforts 

 have been rendered abortive by illicit export. Feathers are conveyed 

 clandestinely out of the country under fictitious names, or under false 

 declarations. In March 1908, six cases described as containing " cow- 

 hair " were shipped from India, and were found on their arrival in London 

 to consist of the skins of 6,400 green paraquets. A vast number of 

 feathers which are used in the millinery trade in Great Britain are 

 smuggled into her ports under false declarations ; and the action of the 

 brokers by suppressing all detailed advertisements of the London plume 

 sales, says Mr. Buckland, " is indicative of a knowledge on their part that 

 there is being carried on in the heart of the City a business of so ques- 

 tionable a nature that it is expedient in their interests to interpose 

 darkened glasses, or the equivalent, between its inner history, and the 

 eyes of the public." 



In conclusion, Mr. Buckland adds that the traffic in ornamental feathers 

 is a national disgrace, and must be stamped out. 



The great interest and criticism which this article has called forth, has 

 prompted us to examine the various measures which have been taken, from 

 time to time, in India for the protection of bird life, and we publish 

 the results of our enquiries in the hope that, not only will they be of some 

 interest to ornithologists in general, but also that some good may come of 

 them. 



The fauna of British India is protected by the following Acts and 

 Rules : — 



(1) Madras Act II of 1879. — The operation of this Act is confined to 

 _the Nilgiris. It provides for close seasons, and prohibits the killing, cap- 

 turing, and selling of game and fish during such seasons. 



