1110 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



parcel post, under false declarations, was resorted to largely. In con- 

 sequence of this, two Notifications Nos. 1819-60 and 1821-60, dated the 

 26th February 1907, were issued under the Indian Post Office Act, 1898, 

 (VI of 1898), empowering certain postal officers to search, or cause search 

 to be made, for birds' skins and feathers in course of transmission by 

 post to any place outside British India, and making the customs declara- 

 tion in respect of parcels handed to the Post Office for transmission by 

 the Foreign post, a declaration required by the Post Office Act. 



As the position in respect of the illicit traffic in plumage from India is 

 not generally known, we have given in detail the foregoing review of the 

 various preventative measures, taken from time to time, in this country, 

 and it will be observed that the Indian Government have practically closed 

 every possible channel of export. But in spite of all these prohibitions, 

 smuggling to a large extent has commenced, and still continues. The 

 explanatory memorandum which is prefixed to Lord Avebury's " Importa- 

 tion of Plumage Prohibition Bill " is most pertinent to the subject, and 

 deserves to be quoted in full : — 



" The object of this Act is to check the wanton and wholesale destruction of 

 birds which is being carried on everywhere throughout the British Empire, and in 

 all parts of the world, without regard to agricultural, educational and rethetic 

 value of birds. As a proof of the extent of the destruction that at present goes 

 on, and which is threatening the extinction of the most beautiful species, it may 

 be mentioned that at the plume auctions held in London during the last six months 

 of 1907 there were catalogued 19,712 skins of the birds of paradise : 1,411 pack- 

 ages of the nesting plumes of the white heron (representing the feathers of nearly 

 115,000 birds), besides immense numbers of the feathers and skins of almost every 

 known species of ornamental plumaged bird. At the June sale, held at the 

 Commercial Sale Rooms, 1,386 crowned pigeons' heads were sold, while among 

 miscellaneous bird-skins one firm of auctioneers alone catalogued over 20.000 King- 

 fishers. A deplorable feature of recent sales is the offer of large numbers of lyre- 

 birds' tails and of albatross quills. The constant repetition of such figures as the 

 above — and these plume sales take place at least every two months — shows that 

 the Legislature must choose between the extermination or the protection of the 

 birds in question." 



The statements in the above memorandum, astounding as they may seem. 

 are nevertheless indisputable, and the inference that may be drawn there- 

 from, viz., that an enormous illicit trade flourishes at the present time, is 

 fully borne out by an examination of the records of the Indian Customs 

 Authorities. During the years 1903-1910, no less than 49 cases of smuggling 

 were detected at the ports of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Burma. 

 There were 2o cases in Calcutta, 8 in Bombay. 10 in Madras, and 6 in 

 Burma . 



A brief description of some of the more important of these cases which 

 have been detected (in addition to the one noticed by Mr. Buckland) is not 





