Some reasons why International Bird Protection is 



necessary. 



By William Dulcher, Washington. 



After reading- the admirable and comprehensive historical 

 sketch of the development of international bird protection in 

 Europe, written by Otto Herman, and published by the Royal 

 Hungarian Minister of Agriculture, Ignatus de Darânyi, I was 

 greatly astonished to discover that during the half century in 

 which the subject had been considered by the great powers of 

 Europe, through their scientific representatives and their learned 

 ornithologists, that one of the greatest causes of bird destruction, 

 not only in Europe but in all other parts of the world, had never 

 been discussed. I refer to the slaughter of birds for millinery 

 purposes. The only mention of the millinery trade may be found 

 on page 122 in the report of the International Ornithological 

 Congress, held at Paris in 1900, which reads as follows: ,,The 

 first event was that the delegates of the Paris feather-merchants 

 and of the millinery houses, — two branches which demanded 

 and still demand the sacrifice of billions of poor birds!!! appeared 

 at the Ornithological Congress to raise their voices in opposition 

 to the cause of bird protection which threatened to injure their 

 material interest". 



Surely if the members of the several Congresses which have 

 met in the past could not agree upon any schedule of birds that 

 were beneficial to agriculture, or on the contrar}^ were supposed 

 to be noxious, it would seem that the destruction of birds for 

 millinery purposes would have been a common ground upon which 

 the delegates from the difl-'erent countries could have agreed and 

 might have been in harmony in any drastic measure that would 

 prohibit the use of birds for this wasteful purpose. The Paris 

 milliners protested against any movement which threatened to 

 injure their material interest. I ask whether the milliners have 

 any interest that is paramount to the interest of agriculture and 

 its allied industry, forestry. These two industries need the live 

 bird and necessarily must advocate their protection and increase. 

 On the other hand, the milliners demand a dead bird and require 

 that it shall be killed at a season of the year when it is in its best 

 plumage, that is, during the period of reproduction; the result 

 being decrease and eventual extermination. 



There is a legal side to this question : In America the wild 

 liirds are considered the property of the State and the milliners 



