AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OF THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
Xo. 8.J AUGUST 1911 . L VoL ‘ X 
BIRDS AND CROPS. 
The counsel for the defence of the plumage 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-five years and more that I 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 cleciea- 
sing but at times are on the contrary a serious nuisance, dangei and 
