on some Victims of Fashion.



177



lime. Hiding himself behind the screen he crawls near the birds,

and one by one very cautiously joints the pieces of rod together,

gradually pushing them all the while near to the unconscious

birds. When he thinks he has got near enough he gives the rod

a sharp twist, and the sticky limed ends catch in the birds’

plumage. He then drags the bird to him and slips it into a

closed basket at his side. I have seen a clever fowler catch

several one after the other before the rest of the flock were aware

of what was taking place.


For the capture of Egrets the jointed rod is used, only

instead of having the ends limed a short barbed spear is fixed;

the fowler now creeps under the tree where the Egret is sitting

on her nest and transfixes the unfortunate bird on the barbed

end. A whole “heronry” may thus be cleared in a single day.

For Egret plumes a considerable price was realised in the Cal¬

cutta market.


Thanks to efforts made by a Society for the protection of

birds in India great restraint has been placed on these marauders

of the feathered tribe.


Vendors of “ Ospreys” as Egret plumes are known to the

trade, try to salve the consciences of the buyers that these

plumes are artificial ; but this has been repeatedly proved to be

not true. It is not possible to manufacture artificial plumes of

this sort and purchasers of “ Ospreys ” would do well to swallow

this statement cum grano satis. Some slight idea may be formed

of the immense destruction to the feathered tribes from the fol¬

lowing sale notice, quoted by Mr. Dewar :—“At the feather sale

at the Commercial Sale Rooms, Loudon, on 19th April, 1904,

there were 161 packages of Osprey feathers, of varying quantities,

these being all the plumes of the various Egrets and small

Eastern Herons, with a few of the Common Heron (A. cinerea )

Of Birds of Paradise from New Guinea, there were 3255, chiefly

P. apoda ; of Impeyau Pheasants from the Himalayas, 648; of

Indian Rollers no fewer than 3913; with also a large number of

East Indian Pigeons, and Pittas, Indian Owls, Parrots and Jungle

cocks. One firm catalogued 469 Chinese Mandarin Ducks. The

remainder of the birds were mostly from America, comprising

52,628 Humming Birds, and numerous Cardinals, Tanagers,



