THE BIRDS OF SINGAPORE ISLAND 
when alive are totally insuffictent in quality or quantity to meet 
the demand of "civilization*.** in a recL^nt book entitled "Our 
vanishing Wild Life" by W, T. Hornaday, the author gives 
figures showing that the London feather trade alone sold 
21,5^8 ounces of aigrette plumes in nine months in iqii, and 
he calculates that this figure stands far the death of 129,163 
adult egrets killed during tiie breedin*'^ seasotn thus entailing 
the additional loss of an immense number of defenceless young. 
Venezuela, Brazil and China proper appear to be the chief 
places of export, though in general figures illustrating 
England's import of ornamental feathers and down for 1910, 
Java, Sumatra and Borneo are credited with the export of 
skins to the value of £38,855 during thai jwriod. 
Birds of this order are found in most parts of the world 
excepting the extreme north but they are most mmierous in 
the tropical and sub-tropical regions* 
In the Malay Peninsula several ibises and storks occur 
but these are a long way (either geographically or on account 
of their local status) beyond the scope of this book. 
The Eastern race of the common heron, (Ardca cinfrca), 
another very similar but larger and darker species, Ardia 
sumatrana and the well-known purple heron are all met with, 
and also several kinds of the snowy-white egrets and pond- 
herons. The Malayan list which is a fairly lengthy one also 
includes the reef-heron (Dcmtegretta sacrti} which is 
remarkable hi having two phases of plumage, a white and a 
grey. The grey phase is the most commonly met with in the 
south of the Peninsula, The Singapore list is likewise a long 
one and includes no less than fourteen species but of these only 
four are at all common and likely to be seen by the ordinary 
observer: these are all dealt with below. 
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