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ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



Mammals 



W. T. HORNADAY. 



Sirds 

 William Beebe. 

 Lke S. Crandall. 



Aquarium, 



C. H. TOWNSEND. 



Reptiles 

 Raymond L. Ditmars. 



Published bi-monthly at the Office of the Society, 

 111 Broadway, New York City. 



Yearly by Mail, $1.00. 



MAILED FREE TO MEMBERS. 



Copyright, 1910, by the New York Zoological Society. 



Each author is responsible for the scientific accuracy 



and the proof reading of his contribution. 



Elwin R. Sanborn, 



Editor and Offlcial Photugrupher 



Vol. XIX, No. 4. 



JULY, 1916 



GREAT SEIZURES OF BIRDS' 

 PLUMAGE. 



Illicit Trade in Bombay 

 From The Madras Mail, May 10, 1916. 



Bombay, 9th May. — A few figures are published 

 showing that the Customs Preventive Department at 

 this port have during the past year been liighly suc- 

 cessful in stopping the trade in the illicit export of 

 birds' plumage. Ten exporters have come within their 

 grasp, and from these were seized egret plumes 

 worth Rs. 2,19,04T in India and £44,000 in London. 

 The rupee value represents the sum whicli the ex- 

 porters paid to those who took the feathers from 

 the birds. So the loss to the trade was considerable. 

 In addition penalties varying from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 

 10,000 each, and amounting altogether to Rs. 59,175, 

 were inflicted on these men, and over Rs. 53,000 of 

 this sum has been recovered. Sometimes large cap- 

 tures are made. During the past fortnight, for ex- 

 ample, feathers worth Rs. 14,400 were seized in 

 course of export and the exporter detected. The 

 Preventive Department believe that they destroyed 

 about 90 per cent, of the trade last year. But the 

 profits are very large and the despatch of parcels 

 is beginning again. 



There appears to be a serious defect in the law 

 on the matter. When an exporter is discovered — no 

 easy matter, for feather correspondents do not sign 

 their letters with their true name — the Customs De- 

 partment can, on a Magistrate's warrant, have his 

 house searclied and seize the feathers found there 

 to produce as evidence that he is engaged in the 

 trade. But they have to return the feathers and can 

 only take possession of them if they are discovered 

 in the course of export. 



Editorial in The Madras Mail. 

 We referred the other day to the great difficulty 

 there is in stopping the illicit trade in birds' plu- 

 mage, owing to there being no reciprocal Act in the 

 United Kingdom prohibiting the importation of such 

 articles, because of the political influence of the trade 

 that deals in these goods. A telegram which we 

 publish to-day, from Bombay provides further evi- 

 dence of this fact. Judging by the figures given, the 

 trade is a valuable one since the consignments of 

 only ten exporters was valued at £44,000 in the Lon- 



don market. What it must have been before the 

 Act passed by the Government of India we can well 

 imagine, also the wholesale destruction and cruelty 

 entailed by the trade. 



It is a comment on the policy of the Home Gov- 

 ernment who, before the war, were feverishly on the 

 look-out for all sorts catch-vote, mock philantliropic 

 schemes to legislate about and waste money on, but 

 refused to suppress an evil the existence of which 

 was patent to all. This being the case, it remains 

 for us in India to exercise jealously tlie power we 

 possess under the Act, especially as there is an 

 indication that, taking advantage of the preoccupa- 

 tion and, possibly, a certain amount of disorganiza- 

 tion that exists now on account of the war, the trade 

 is getting more active again. One way in which this 

 can be done is to remedy the defect in the law which 

 has been discovered in Bombay, which prevents feath- 

 ers and plumage seized on search in a suspected 

 exporter's premises from being confiscated or de- 

 stroyed. 



Under the Act, possession of these goods is not an 

 olfense, which only becomes established when the 

 exporter attempts to ship the goods, and they are 

 then seized liy tlie Customs preventive agenc}'. This 

 surely is an anomaly in a law which has for its ob- 

 ject the pre^'ention of the destruction of beautiful 

 wild birds in India for their plumage. 



This plumage has practically no mtirket value in 

 India, so a man discovered with large quantities of 

 it in his house or on his person should be presumed 

 to be keeping it there for export purposes, and it 

 should come under the provisions of the Act which 

 authorises confiscation. 



We believe that the Editor of the Mail is 

 unaware of the fact that despite the fierce op- 

 position of the London feather trade, aided by 

 certain misled zoologists, the Hobhouse (gov- 

 ernment) bill to prohibit the importation of 

 wild birds' plumage had gone to a fourth read- 

 ing, and unquestionably would have been final- 

 ly passed by Parliament had the outbreak of 

 the European War been deferred only two 

 weeks! The British government was really in 

 the act of doing its whole duty to the birds of 

 the world.— ^r. T. H. 



A Runaway Monkey. — A certain number of 

 our monkeys, that have been presented to the 

 Park, have been much petted by their former 

 owners. In consequence they have been given 

 more liberties than the wilder specimens, and 

 while the keepers are cleaning their cages, they 

 are permitted, sometimes, to run about the 

 building. Quite recently, an animal of this 

 kind — a medium-sized rhesus monkey — became 

 frightened and dashed outside. The keeper 

 called to it, but a passing cart added to the 

 animal's excitement and it fled into the woods 

 with Keeper Engeholm in close pursuit. The 

 monkey led the chase to the Bronx River at 

 its widest part, and keeping a straight course, 

 plunged into the water and struck out for the 



