26 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
SOME FOREIGN COMMENT 
As was to be expected, the great for¬ 
ward step taken by the United States 
in forbidding plumage importation, 
gave new courage to the friends of 
such a move in other countries. The 
following clipping, taken from a re¬ 
cent London Daily Mail, shows how 
quickly the English have revived this 
idea, on which, be it said to their 
credit, they have worked more than 
once before: 
CRUELTY AND PERIL OF PLUM¬ 
AGE TRADE. 
Sir Harry Johnston, the famous 
traveller, presided yesterday at a meet¬ 
ing in support of a bill to close British 
ports and British markets to the skins 
and plumes of certain birds. The meet¬ 
ing was held at the Whitehall rooms. 
Sir Harry said if there were no in¬ 
sects, ticks, molluscs and worms to 
carry the germs from plant to plant or 
from the blood of one animal to that 
of another, about two-thirds of the 
world’s diseases would come to an end, 
Nearly all the rare and beautiful birds 
they wished to preserve were insect 
eaters. 
Plumage hunters,” he continued, 
"who work for the great plumage trad¬ 
ing houses of England, Holland, Bel¬ 
gium, France, and Japan, and formerly 
in the United States (where a prohib¬ 
itory Act is now in force), obtain these 
skins lor the most part that they may 
be sold in civilized countries as decora¬ 
tions tor the heads, and dress trim¬ 
mings of rich and thoughtless women. 
Women would look just as beautiful 
and appear infinitely wiser and better 
educated, if they did without these 
adornments. They should limit their 
choice to the feathers of the immense 
variety of birds and skins or plumes of 
which will not be excluded by the pro¬ 
posed bill.” 
Mr. James Buckland said that if 
birds, which were the natural enemies 
of forest insects, were annihilated 
every tree would perish, and man 
would be powerless to prevent the cal¬ 
amity. Yet the plumage trade was 
reaching out its tentacles into the in¬ 
nermost recesses of the forests of the 
world, and drawing in the skins of 
every one of these feathered guar¬ 
dians. A matter of very grave concern 
was the enormous number of fly-catch¬ 
ing and parasite-eating birds that were 
being killed annually for their plum¬ 
age in central Africa. In a warm coun¬ 
try the kingfisher fed almost entirely 
on insects, of which it ate 150 a dav, 
and that the skins of 216,660 kingfish¬ 
ers should be offered at the last six 
London feather sales was asking for 
trouble. 
During the past 12 months the fig¬ 
ures of some of the species sold were: 
Crowned pigeons, 21,318; macaw 
wings, 5,794 pairs; quills of the white 
crane, 20,715; humming birds, 4,112; 
Great Britain, said Mr. Buckland, 
could do a noble deed bv freeing tin' 
bird from the clutches of greed. 
