JB1UD NOTES AND NEWS. 



61 



far as can be ascertained no authority is forth- 

 coming for the assertion. That ostrich-fanning does 

 not necessarily entail cruelty has been again and 

 again stated by those in a position to know the 

 facts. Such cruelty as exists on badly-managed 

 farms belongs to the same category as that prac- 

 tised only too often on sheep and cattle farms by 

 the careless and callous ; it is not essentially involved 

 in the business as is the case, for example, in the 

 procuring of egret plumes. The Society will 

 always welcome first-hand information on the 

 subject from those personally acquainted with the 

 conduct of ostrich-farms. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL CONGRESS. 



The Fourth International Ornithological Congress 

 will be held in London, June 12th to 17th, 1905, 

 when a large number of ornithologists from all 

 parts of the world are expected. A section will be 

 devoted to Economic Ornithology and Bird Pro- 

 tection. The meetings will be held at the Imperial 

 Institute, South Kensington, and the programme 

 also includes a reception by the Lord Mayor of 

 London, conversazione at the Natural History 

 Museum, excursions to Tring, Woburn Park, Cam- 

 bridge, and Flamborough Head. Dr. Bowdler- 

 Sharpe is the President-elect. The subscription 

 for membership is £1, and should be sent to the 

 Hon. Treasurer, Mr. C. E. Fagan, Natural History 

 Museum, Cromwell Road, S.W. The Hon. Sees, 

 are Dr. Hartert, Tring, and Mr. J. L. Bonhote, 

 Ditton Hall, Fen Ditton, Cambridge. 



THE PLUME SALES. 



Indian birdskins continue to be offered at the 

 feather sales. At the Commercial Rooms on 

 February 14th, 1905, 45 Argus pheasants from the 

 Himalayas, 900 jungle-cocks, and a large quantity 

 of peacock feathers were offered. The larger por- 

 tion of the 265 packages of " osprey " plumes were 

 probably from Asia ; others from America. The 

 prices reached were fully 10 per cent, more than at 

 former sales. There were 5296 birds-of-paradise 

 selling at from 8s. to 24s. per skin. Other skins 

 included 2626 tanagers, 1043 orioles, 76 trogons, 

 194 toucan breasts, and 2519 humming-birds (which 

 sold at from four to eight a penny), also 50 condor 

 skins from South America and 46 emu skins from 

 Australia. On the whole, the number of birdskins 

 of various kinds appears to be decreasing, with the 

 exception of the birds-of-paradise ; the number of 

 these is so great that unless a stop is speedily put 

 to the traffic in them several species of this 

 magnificent group must become exterminated. 



CAGE-BIRD TRAFFIC. 



In December last forty-four dozen Larks and 

 Greenfinches, newly caught, were sent by a New- 

 castle dealer to Liverpool for shipment to the United 

 States. On arrival at New York over 80 per cent, 

 of the birds were dead, and those surviving in a 

 weak and haif-starved condition. Mr. William 

 Dutcher, Chairman of the Associated Audubon 

 Societies, writes to our Society (December 21st, 

 1904) :— 



" The birds were sent in charge of a foreign 

 express company, and the consignee refused to 

 receive the small remnant of the original shipment 

 The result was that for three or four days the birds 

 have been lying in the express office in this city 

 gradually becoming weaker, although the company 

 tried to feed them, but the putrefying bodies of the 

 dead ones in the cages had a sickening effect on 

 the ones still alive. I saw the few remaining ones — 

 about twenty birds that had still some life in them 

 — this morning and got the express company to 

 consent to send them to a prominent bird dealer in 

 this city that they might be cared for. I relate this 

 story trusting that your Society will see whether 

 some action cannot be taken to stop the shipment 

 of such birds from Great Britain." 



A second shipment of the same size met a like 

 fate. Of the whole thousand birds less than 10 

 per cent, reached New York alive. The shippers' 

 version of the story is that the birds had every 

 attention, but that 135 of the first lot died before 

 being shipped, and that large numbers died daily 

 during the voyage on account of the inclemency of 

 the weather and the fact that the birds were fresh 

 caught. 



Neither the Bird Protection Acts nor the Acts 

 for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals seem able 

 to touch these cases. They are simply an outcome 

 of the trade in caged birds permitted in England. 



Among the sample police court cases quoted on 

 another page of this paper will be found an account 

 of a London bird-dealer's shop, another outcome 

 of the same trade. Little wonder that our 

 American cousins stand amazed by British com- 

 plaisance. 



The sale of caged birds of American species is 

 absolutely prohibited throughout the United States. 



The Model Law, drafted by the Audubon Society 

 and recommended by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, prevents the holding of live 

 birds in captivity or the traffic in them, except 

 where the privilege is given to a citizen of the 

 State to have a pet bird provided it is not kept for 

 sale or shipped out of the State. In Louisiana, the 

 State from which came almost all the birds for 

 export, the bird-dealers fought strenuously against 

 the adoption of the law, but it was passed in 1904, 



