186



Review



shot at practically every bird he saw ; not only with the connivance

but the approval of the adult community, who in their turn massacred

entire colonies of breeding birds for the millinery trade, leaving the

young to die of starvation or be eaten alive by ants. The fight against

cupidity, greed, and thoughtless cruelty was long and stern, as Mr. Pear¬

son remarks, “ something would have been amiss if it 'were not, I have

never known an important bird protection bill that was not bitterly

fought 55 .


The world traffic in feather millinery reached its height between

1870 and 1908 and the quantities of plumage used during these years

was beyond calculation. “As an example, in an auction room in London,

where great sales took place monthly there was displayed in June, 1900,

in one lot, white egret plumes that had cost the lives of more than

24,000 birds.”


Mr. Pearson was eight times elected as Chairman of the International

Committee for Bird Preservation. In December, 1936, this Committee

consisted of 219 members, representing 138 leading scientific and wild

life conservation organizations that compose the National sections in

twenty-seven nations.


The Committee, in Continental Europe, as aviculturists know, has

the constant co-operation of M. Delacour among others, and that office

is actively sounding public sentiment in European countries on the

advisability of adopting a new European international treaty for bird

protection to include North Africa.


Mr. Pearson is one of those fortunate people who are privileged

to see the result of their life work before they die. He has written

modestly of his own part and given full credit to Mr. Butcher and

other labourers in the same field, but no one can read his book, and

it is to be hoped that a great many people will, and fail to be impressed

by his whole-hearted enthusiasm for the cause he has made his own.

He was the son of poor Quaker parents, brought up in the country,

where he collected birds 5 eggs, and gained that knowledge of birds

which he afterwards turned to such good account. Few books came

his way and those few were obtained by hard work and self-denial,

which met with little encouragement.



E. F. C.



