28 



B1BD NOTES AND NEWS. 



or transport such birds or eggs from the county 

 protecting them. This would have the further 

 advantage of saving us from the unpleasant sight 

 of women walking among gull-loving and gull- 

 protecting Londoners with the remains of gulls 

 and kittiwakes in their hats. 



Birds in the Philippines. 



The report for 1903 of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union on the protection of North American birds, 

 and on the work of the Audubon societies, is 

 inspiriting reading. Encouraging progress appears 

 to have been made alike in the legislative, the 

 educational, and the warden work. The last-named 

 corresponds to the work which our own Society 

 hopes to do by means of its Watchers' Fund, but 

 has had the co-operation of the States govern- 

 ments. It is interesting to hear how quickly 

 bird-lovers v/ere to the front to guard bird-life in 

 the Philippines, and to prevent its destruction 

 for commercial purposes. The memorial to the 

 Secretary of War runs : — 



"At present there is an enormous demand for the 

 plumage of birds used by the millinery trade. . . . Birds 

 are now protected in most of the colonies of Australia, 

 in India, and Burma. Steps have been taken to protect 

 certain species in British New Guinea, and within the 

 past year the export of birds and plumage from India has 

 been absolutely prohibited. Apparently in most countries 

 of the Orient under British rule efforts are being made to 

 curtail the wholesale destruction of birds for millinery 

 purposes, and the enforcement of the existing laws will 

 inevitably drive the plume hunter to new fields, including 

 the Philippine Islands." 



From the answer returned it is believed that the 



birds of the Philippines may now be regarded as 



safe. The Midway Isles have also, and with 



reason, engaged the attention of the protection 



committee, for here enormous numbers of sea-birds 



are killed by Japanese hunters for exportation to 



the London, Paris, and New York millinery market, 



among them a particularly beautiful snow-white 



tern, Gygis alba (with the trade name of " Albina"), 



which is in danger of extermination. 



The Plume Trade. 



There is little doubt that British governments 

 are both willing and anxious to save the birds in 

 lands under their jurisdiction ; but England itself, 

 standing in the position of receiver of ill-gotten 

 goods, is more difficult to deal with. The Audubon 

 societies report that feathered millinery is going 

 out, not only because of the growth of Audubon 

 sentiment, but because of the greater difficulty in 

 obtaining plumes, and the laws protecting the 



plume birds. At their back they have a strong 

 feeling for the protection of the nation's own birds. 

 In England, where comparatively few plume birds 

 are native, the question involves commercial 

 imports and a lucrative trade. But until it is 

 dealt with, and the dumping of foreign bird-skins 

 is interdicted in favour of the ostrich feathers of 

 our own colonies, what hope is there of any end 

 to such sales as those held in London every two 

 months ? In New York the Audubon Societies 

 have made an agreement with the milliners by 

 which the trade undertake not to traffic in gulls, 

 terns ; grebes, herons, egrets, humming-birds, 

 and song-birds. But what would be the out- 

 come of any such attempted agreement in this 

 country ? Egret plumes would remain "artificial," 

 gulls would pass as pigeons, song-birds as sparrows, 

 and all and sundry as " imitation," just as they are 

 described at present, when occasion demands, in 

 what are euphemistically called " trade terms." 



Trees and Climate. 



Mr. E. D. Till, the author of the Society's prize 

 essay on Bird and Tree Day, and a keen believer 

 in afforestation, has an article on the subject in 

 Pearson's Magazine for February ; and the prac- 

 tical side of the subject was forcibly demonstrated 

 by Professor Schlich, CLE., F.R.S., F.L.S., in the 

 course of a lecture in Carpenters' Hall, London, 

 on February 25th, under the auspices of the Car- 

 penters' Company. Forests are, Dr. Schlich 

 pointed out, of direct value through their products, 

 and of indirect value through their influence upon 

 climate, the regulation of moisture, the stability 

 of the soil, the healthiness and the aesthetic beauty 

 of a country ; and they have a beneficial influence 

 upon the moral and physical welfare, as well as on 

 the character, of a people. 



" An incidental further benefit oj such woods consists 

 in the fact that they form breeding and resting places 

 for useful birds, which in their turn render an immense 

 service to man as the great insect-destroyers in agricul- 

 tural districts." 



Readers of Mr. George Gissing's By the Ionian 

 Sea will remember a striking instance there cited 

 of the effect of trees on climate. The fever-stricken 

 and waterless village of Cotrona, with its dried-up 

 streams and polluted wells, stands on the site of a 

 great city which was called the healthiest in the 

 world. The change is believed to have been 

 brought about by the destruction of forests which 

 clothed the hills ; consequent on this destruction 

 there is practically no rain in Cotrona to-day, and 

 there is scarcely a healthy man. 



