46 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



shoulder, and sometimes attain a length of two 

 feet. 



Goura Mounts. — The Goura, or Crowned 

 Pigeon, is another native of New Guinea and 

 adjoining islands — a beautiful lavender-grey bird, 

 with a peculiar crest, for the sake of which it is 

 killed. With its limited habitat its extermination, 

 once decreed by the trade, may soon be effected. 



Rhea. — This bird furnishes the feathers, called 

 " vulture " or " vautour " by the trade, largely used 

 as " quills," and also to some extent for making 

 aigrettes. It is the ostrich of South America, 

 smaller than the African bird and without the 

 decorative " ostrich plume," and is not farmed. 

 It is persecuted pitilessly by the plume-hunters, 

 has already disappeared from some regions, is 

 nowhere abundant, and its extirpation is only a 

 matter of time if the present slaughter continues. 



Emu. — The representative of the ostrich tribe in 

 S. E. Australia. As the eggs as well as the feathers 

 are keenly sought, this bird has been to a great 

 extent stamped out by the march of civilization, 

 and is being rapidly exterminated in the homes 

 which remain to it. 



Grebe. — The satiny-white plumage of the Grebe 

 is accepted as a fur by some ladies. The elegant 

 water-birds which furnish it are slaughtered by 

 thousands in Russia and North America, being 

 shot most successfully on the great lakes in breed- 

 ing time. At that season some species, like the 

 British Great Crested Grebe, have curious orna- 

 ments of horns or tippets, one kind having its head 

 surrounded with an aureole " which glitters with a 

 glory that passes description." " Harmless, beauti- 

 ful, defenceless," writes Mr. Vernon Bailey, of the 

 U.S. Biological Survey, " they fill the place among 

 birds which the fur seals do among mammals, and 

 their doom seems as sure and sad." 



With these birds must be mentioned the 

 Swallow (killed on migration and the wings 

 much used), Tern and Kittiwake, and Owl, all 

 largely employed. 



Many other birds whose names are comparatively 

 unknown, and therefore mean little to buyers of 

 millinery, figure largely in catalogues of the plume 

 trade and are used in the manufacture of feather 

 ornaments. These include : 



Argus Pheasant.— An inhabitant of the Eastern 

 Archipelago, and remarkable for its long tail quills, 

 marked with eye-like spots ; in the cock bird these 

 are three feet or more in length. 



Cardinal. — The handsome songster familiar 

 as the Virginian nightingale. One of the most 



characteristic birds of Bermudas. The name is 

 given also to some crimson finches. 



Cock-OF-the-Rock. — A wonderful orange- 

 coloured bird, very rare, peculiar to Guiana and 

 the lower countries of the Amazons. 



Humming-Birds. — The smallest and most 

 radiant and sparkling of all birds. They occur in 

 the New World only, and number some 450 

 species. The glory and lustre of their glittering 

 little bodies cannot be imagined by those who see 

 only the dull dead skins. 



Impeyan Pheasant.— A bird of the Himalayan 

 forests. " In some districts seems to have been 

 extremely numerous not so many years ago, but 

 this is not so now, for the cocks have been killed 

 by thousands to meet the plume market" (Prof. 

 Newton). Plumage chiefly of shining gold, green, 

 and blue. (The exportation of feathers from India 

 is now prohibited.) 



Lyre-bird. — A native of Australia. Killed for 

 its long tail plumes, which do not attain perfection 

 until the bird is in its third or fourth year, and then 

 only in the breeding season. Almost the sole 

 survivor of a very ancient family of birds. 



Oriole. — The beautiful Golden Oriole, which 

 some ornithologists hope to see naturalised in 

 England. 



Pitta. — A family of gaily-hued birds, obtained 

 mainly from the Malay Archipelago, and remark- 

 able for brilliantly contrasted patches of colour. 



Rifle-bird. — The Australian bird-of-paradise 

 (a name given also to the lyre-bird). Clad in 

 velvety black and glittering green. Named from 

 the green uniform of Riflemen. 



Roller. — Known in the trade as Jay. Lovely 

 blue birds, of Indian and Ethiopian regions. Almost 

 wholly blue, from delicate azure to deep ultra- 

 marine. " Thousands upon thousands," writes 

 Professor Newton, " are annually destroyed to 

 supply the demand for gaudy feathers to bedizen 

 ladies' dresses." 



Tanager. — Brilliant little creatures of the finch 

 tribe, belonging chiefly to tropical America. The 

 Scarlet Tanager (a summer immigrant in the 

 Northern States), whose gay feathers are coveted 

 by the trade, is scarlet only in the summer or 

 breeding season. 



Trogon. — Corrupted by the trade to " Trojan." 

 Perhaps the most splendid of all birds, not 

 excepting the birds-of-paradise ; inhabits tropical 

 America, Asia, and Africa. Plumage generally 

 of gorgeous colouring, carmine, green and gold 

 predominating. The king of the family is the 

 Quezal, a native of Central America, whose flowing 



