AQRiCULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



5TRA1T5 



AND 



FEDERATED MALAY 5TATE5. 



No. 8.] AUGUST 1911. IVoL. X 



BIRDS AND CROPS. 



The counsel for the defence of the phimage trade has a very 

 difficult case to deal with. He is represented to some extent by the 

 Editor of " Tropical Life," who read a paper on the subject at the 

 First International Congress of Tropical Agriculture, and has also 

 published some letters to the "Times," in which he puts up presum- 

 ably the best defence he can for an utterly-indefensible position. 



It is unnecessary probably to give any of the accounts of the 

 merciless slaughter in thousands of the most beautiful birds of the 

 world, and the still worse feature of the death from, starvation of 

 myriads of nestlings, in order to decorate the hats of European 

 women. The story has been told and illustrated many in papers, 

 and should bring shame to the wearers of such millinery. The first 

 point in the subject which attracts the attention of the ordinary 

 thinker is that this destruction in no way benefits the human race. 

 The birds are slaughtered merely for temporary use in the place 

 of artificial flowers, ribbons and such ornaments of hats. The 

 millinery trade is, says the counsel for the defence, naturally protest- 

 ing against such vexations and " uncalled-for " (!) legislation as Lord 

 Curzon's notification that the trade is prohibited in India. This 

 argument will not, however, appeal to any naturalist nor to any lover 

 of birds or admirer of nature. 



"For twenty -fi-ve years and more that 1 have been mixed up 

 in the East and West Indian business, I have always understood that 

 parrots, paroquets, peacocks and other birds abound in the tropics in 

 very large numbers, and taking the world as a whole are not decrea- 

 sing but at times are on the contrary a serious nuisance, danger and 



