144 
NATURE NOTES 
support the above-mentioned bill by signing the following 
declaration : — 
“ I cordially approve of the Bishop of Hereford’s Bill for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Wild Animals. I consider that the time 
has come for suppressing by law such sports as hunting park- 
deer, rabbit-coursing, and shooting birds from traps.” 
He has received affirmative replies from about 130 Principals 
and Headmasters. 
The Destruction of Birds. — Selbornians, and other 
readers of Nature Notes, will be pleased to hear that the 
Humanitarian League has prepared a bill with the object of 
putting an end to the wholesale slaughter of birds for millinery 
purposes. Their intention, which we all hope will meet with 
success, is to get it into Parliament. A reference is made in the 
bill to the recent sale in Mincing Lane, when a single dealer 
offered for sale 2,151 birds of paradise, and i,i8i Impeyan 
pheasants, together with a large number of other species. The 
clauses of the bill are as follows : — 
“ Whereas it is expedient to amend the law with reference 
to the use of the plumage of rare and beautiful birds for the 
purpose of ornamentation, be it therefore enacted by the 
King’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the consent of 
the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in the 
present Parliament assembled, and by authority of the same, 
as follows : — 
“ (i) Any person who after the commencement of this Act 
shall wear, or shall have in possession for the purpose of 
wearing, whether separately or attached to any hat, bonnet, 
or other article of dress, any part of the plumage, skin, or body 
of any bird named in the Schedule appended to this Act, or 
shall offer for sale or have in possession for the purpose of sale, 
such article of dress as aforesaid, any part of such plumage, skin 
or body, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and may on convic- 
tion by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction be fined in any sum 
not exceeding On every such conviction the skin, body, or 
plumage of such bird found to be in the possession of the person 
thus convicted, and any article of dress to which the same may 
be attached, shall be confiscated to the Crown, and the costs of 
the prosecution shall be borne by the person thus convicted. 
“ (2) Every person convicted under this Act shall have the 
same right of appeal as if the same penalty had been imposed 
by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction on a conviction for other 
misdemeanour. 
“ (3) This Act shall come into force on the ist day of January 
next. 
“ Schedule. 
“ Egret, or the female white heron (whose plumage is known 
as osprey), bird of paradise, humming-bird, Impeyan pheasant, 
tern, kittiwake, kingfisher.” 
