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The sole argument left is that the beautiful birds of the tropics 

 should be destroyed for the benefit of the dealers in plumage in 

 London and Paris. Who, except those who make money in this 

 criminal trade would be worse off, if no woman ever wore the fragments 

 of a bird in her hat again ? 



A good many years ago a French plume-hunter took up his abode 

 on the slopes of Mount Ophir and proceeded to exterminate all the 

 most beautiful birds he could find. The Government put a stop to 

 this by passing the Bird Protection Ordinance, and he migrated to 

 Negri Sembilan where the same ordinance was passed, whereupon 

 after selling, it is said, the goodwill of the business to some one else, 

 who did not know it was illegal, he left the country. When I first 

 visited Mount Ophir I was struck by the paucity of birds in the 

 district, due to this plume-hunter, and I met one of his native 

 assistants who applied to me for a job in collecting birds ; on a 

 later visit to this district I was pleased to see a great increase in the 

 number of birds of all kinds, and especially the beautiful fairy blue 

 bird, Irene Pulchella. Now, this kind of ordinance which saved the 

 birds from being utterly exterminated has not in any way interfered 

 with the prosperity of the rices, field and it is a similar Ordinance 

 passed in India by Lord Curzon that is so strongly objected so as 

 being most injurious to the Agriculturist. 



The story of the Hawaiian islands in which agriculture is very 

 seriously checked by the absence of insectivorous birds, exterminated 

 long ago for their feathers, is a warning to those who defend the 

 plume-hunter on the score of improvement of agriculture. In the 

 latest report of the Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and 

 Forestry of Hawaii, we read the struggles of the agricultural depart- 

 ment against the insect pests, and the work and money that is being 

 spent to introduce the enemies of these pests, both insect parasites 

 and insectivorous birds, to do the work that an undisturbed bird- 

 fauna would have done at no expense to the country. 



In selecting birds for the Hawaiian islands Mr. Henshaw is suffi- 

 ciently cautions not to recommend for introduction those that are 

 mainly seed or fruit eaters, and it is true that there are birds which 

 have been found in a certain number of places to have prov- 

 ed very injurious in this way, especially in cold climates 

 where cereals are cultivated over large areas, but here in 

 the tropics whence most of the bright plumaged birds 

 are derived for the trade, the little trouble even in the ricefields 

 caused by the seed-eaters, is compensated for by the valuable work 

 done in the destruction of insect pests. The enemies to our fruit 

 trees are all mammals, chiefly bats, musangs, squirrels and rats. It is 

 very probable that in cases where the seed eating sparrows and 

 finches are in excess, and thus destructive, this is due to destruction of 

 the hawks which keep them in check. In the first series of the 

 "Bulletini" under Notes on Sugar Cultivation, I pointed out that in the 

 sugar fields small birds were rare as in these open fields, they had no 



