BIRD MURDER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 841, 13 June 1910, Page 7

BIRD MURDER.

THE BLOOD-TAX OF FASHION. Br TeleeraDh—Press Association—Cooyrlirht. (Rec. June 12, 5 p.m.) Lencton, June 11.' At tho instance of the Secretary for tho Colonies (Lord Crewe), a.committee of representatives of the Colonial Office and tho Natural History Museum of South Kensington has been appointed to inquire into the possibility of preventing, either legislatively or by Departmental control, the indiscriminate slaughter of plumago birds which* is now rifo in certain parts of the Empire. It, is hoped to obtain the co-operation of all the Governments of the Empire, without which no action could be effective. ' FEATHERED VICTIMS. AN AUSTRALASIAN TRAFFIC. In 190S evidence in support of Lord Avebury's Bill to prohibit the importation of the plumage and skins of wild biTds by the Select Committee to inquire into "the subject. The first witness was Mr. J. Buckland, whose extensive travels had made him acquainted with the wholesale destruction of birds of the most beautiful species. He stated that at the London plume auctions during the last six months of 1907 then! were catalogued 19,712 skins of birds of paradise, 1-111 packages of the nesting plumes of the white heron (ri presenting the feathers of nearly JIS.OGO birds;, besides immense numbers of the feathers and. skins of a"inost every known species of ornamental plumnged birds. At a public sale of plumage held in London the catalogue included 28,400 hawk quills, 17,270 kingfishers, 17,040 terns, 15, Git parrots, 8567 crowned pigeons, 8079 birds of paradise, 6550 albatross quills, and CG.iOoz. of "osprcy." From an agricultural point of view the destruction of birds was disastrous, said Mr. Buckland. Insects were Nature's favourite production. He had seen agriculture brought to a standstill in Australia owing to the absence of birds, wliich had to Ik imported in consequence. He did not consider that Lord Avebury's Bill would interfere with employment. In the first place, at Hie present rate of destruction these birds could not he brought to the market much longer, as there would be none left to bring;' if the Bill passed, the feathers of farmyard birds would be. adapted to the purpose which wild birds now served. Birds of paradise could not last more than two or t.hree years because tho destruction was so rapid. None could imagine, without seeing it, the frightful havoc that was caused—it was not the number of birds that were brought away so much as the number that were left behind dead. Dr. Bowdler-Sharp, of the British Museum, gave similar evidence. Mr. Montagu Sharp, chairman of the Council of the Royal Society for the ■Protection of Birds, followed, and Mr. Rosenberg, F.Z.S., and a dealer in birds, suggested that, in the interests of bird collectors, tho Bill wanted some modification. Australasia is largely drawn on for feathered yictims. The . London plume sales for 1908 show that. 2337 packages of "ospreys" and 28,300 lyre-birds—which come largely from New Guir.Ki— were sold. What milliners call "ospreys" are plumes obtained from the white egret, a bird of the heron type. These plumes, which flow airily' down the back, only appear in tho breeding season, so that the birds are shot when rearing their young. Mr. A. H. Mattingly described a visit to one of the egret rookeries on the Murray River just after it had been raided for plumes. He found tho old birdsi floating dead on the water, the young dying from starvation, falling one by one into the lagoon underneath, weakened - by the lonfr, lingering agony of starvation. Tho most pitable sight of all,' as described by Mr. Mattingly, was the efforts j of the surviving young of the egrets -fo attract other herons wln'oh, jlew,,))};, js'tb,,food,for. their young. 'This barbarous 'practice' of' slaughtering the brooding egrets for their plumes has gone on for years, Mr. Donald Macdonald first drawing: attention to the destruction of the birds on C'obram Station some years ago. A summary of Mr. Mafctingly's. article on the subject appeared in "Bird Notes and News," the quarterly journal of tile English Bird Protection Society, of which Queen Alexandra is Hie patron, and tho Duches-s of Portland president. It is worth noting that other important features in the.last London plume sales were great qualities of crowned pigeons from New_ Guinea, tropical kingfishers and lyre-bird tails, and emu skins from Australia, although' both the lyre-bird and emu are supposed to be protected in Australia.