BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



47 



train feathers are three feet long and of a resplen- 

 dent golden-green. The feathers, however, once 

 taken from the birds, soon fade on exposure to 

 light. 



Almost all these birds, whose names with others 

 are to be found in the catalogues of the feather- 

 sales, are among the rarest and most exquisite 

 gems not only of bird-life but of the whole animate 

 creation, and each year our earth grows the poorer 

 and sadder for loss of her living jewels. They are 

 being sought out from the whole world ; wantonly 

 and uselessly slaughtered; "knocked down" in 

 city auction-rooms, for a few shillings or a few 

 pence apiece ; manufactured by the plumassier 

 into something from which all the grace and loveli- 

 ness and brilliance of the living birds has gone : 

 and this for no better purpose than to provide a 

 season's trimming for women's hats. 



THE PLUME SALES. 



The fourth of the year's (1904) feather sales was 

 held at the Commercial Sale Rooms, London, on 

 July 29th. There were 160 packages of "osprey" 

 plumes, for which the demand was good, and 

 prices higher for long plumes ; these were all 

 feathers of egrets and herons of various kinds 

 from Asia and South America, mostly of such 

 species as are found in India. There were also 

 35 cases of " osprey " skins of the same character. 

 The birds-of-paradise numbered 800, all from 

 New Guinea, and sold at higher prices. Argus 

 pheasants, 109, were from the Himalayas and 

 China. Jays (Indian rollers), 3330, sold at 3^d. to 

 3|d. each. Of owls there were 3674, all examined 

 being of the short-eared species, and probably 

 from India. Humming-birds, 6820, ranged from 

 £d. to 2id- 



The cases of miscellaneous bird skins, 108 in 

 number, included 645 tanagers, 485 cardinals, 135 

 orioles, 2275 bronze ibis wings ; also parrots, 

 cocks-of-the-rock, trogons, peacock feathers (mostly 

 from India), and quantities of eagle, crane, swan, 

 and pelican quills. 



IN THE COURTS. 



The most important case under the Bird Protection 

 Acts heard in the courts recently was that of the 

 Rev. Albert Ernest Sorby, of Darfield Rectory, 

 Yorkshire, who was charged at Lerwick on July 

 1 2th, 1904, with taking two eggs of the great skua 



at Burra Firth, Unst, and one egg of the sea-eagle 

 on the island of Yell. He was fined £3, and the 

 eggs were ordered to be forfeited, and handed 

 over to the Edinburgh Museum. 



Two Ipswich labourers, the one with eighteen, 

 and the other with four previous convictions 

 against him, were charged before the Woodbridge 

 Bench on August 18th with taking wild birds in 

 Close Time. The men were watched by the police 

 on a Sunday morning, and in the whin where they 

 hid were found nine young linnets and two gold- 

 finches tied up in a handkerchief, and a quantity 

 of limed twigs. The Chairman (Mr. J. Loder) 

 said the Bench were determined to stop this cruel 

 practice, and the men were fined £2 with 10s. 6d. 

 costs each. (The captured birds were taken to 

 Mrs. Luther Holden, who cared for them till they 

 were able to fly.) 



Three bird-catchers were fined 15s. and costs 

 each at Enfield on August 15th for netting wild 

 birds and cruelty to decoys. The decoys had had 

 strings fastened round them, which were pulled by 

 the men so as to make them flutter their wings 

 and thus attract free birds ; and a chaffinch 

 produced in court had been blinded by having 

 its eyes pierced with a needle. One defendant 

 said he thought the five years for which the Act 

 was in force had expired. The chairman (Mr. J. 

 W. Ford) assured him that the five years were 

 never likely to expire, and the law on the matter 

 was likely to be more severe. If they were ever 

 brought there again for putting out the eyes of a 

 bird he would fine them £$. The decoys, nets, 

 and cages were confiscated. 



Henry James, a bird dealer of Old Kent Road, 

 was fined £4 4s. at Lambeth on August 12th for 

 exposing for sale 35 skylarks, two blackbirds, and 

 three linnets, recently taken. At South London 

 Police Court, Thomas J. Goodwin, also of Old 

 Kent Road, was fined £3 and costs for the illegal 

 possession of three young thrushes. Defendant 

 declared that such birds were openly sold in the 

 streets in the East End. The magistrate said this 

 cruel traffic must be stopped. (Both these cases 

 were proved by Inspector Green, of the R.S.P.C.A.) 



A Saffron Walden labourer and his son were 

 convicted at the Borough Bench on June 17th for 

 using lime to take birds. The Mayor said it was 

 a cruel thing to take linnets in this way, as ninety- 

 nine birds out of every hundred died in the eariy 

 days of captivity. 



A Barkingside dealer, summoned before the 

 Ongar Bench on June 25th for the possession of 

 wild birds, said he had had them a twelvemonth, 

 and only brought them down there for air and 

 sunshine. The Chairman (Captain Wellesley 

 Pigott) said he could tell that to someone else ; he 

 had better not come there again. Ordered to pay 

 5s. costs. 



In hearing a case at Barnard Castle on June 29th, 

 in which two miners were charged with having an 

 owl in their possession, Colonel Vane said the Act 

 was not half sufficiently enforced. 



The Brighton magistrates imposed a fine of 40s. 

 and costs, with the alternative of a month's hard 

 labour, in the case of William King, bird-catcher, 



