EMPIRE'S BIRDS AND BEASTS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2129, 22 April 1914, Page 5

EMPIRE'S BIRDS AND BEASTS

AN IMPERIAL STOCK-TAKING

PRACTICAL PROPOSALS FOR PRESERVATION

(By Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., in tho "Daily News.") Two societies—that for tho Preservation of Fauna of the Km pi re and tlie Committee to Promote tho Economic Preservation of Birds—have recently come into existence, both assuming titles which must bring a thrill of pleasure to all Nature-lovers and all practical-mindcd Imperialists who are conscious of tli'o marvellous endowment of world-wonders with which the British Empire started on 'its career of history and yet who feel tho responsibility of trustees for what has been given to our keeping. Wo have a right to tho usufruct, but oug;ht we to spend, to waste, to embezzle tho capital.

The first-named of these associations canle into cxistenco somo four years ago. It held a meeting recently at the House of Commons to givo an account of its doings during tho last twelvo months. Us virtual founder is the veteran sportsman and naturalist, Mr. Edward North Buxtonj the \erdcrer of lipping Forest, who for tho_ last' fourteen years lias been active in the promotion of big-game preserves in Africa and lias at different times criticised severely (and wiili good results) tbo Administrations of the Sudan and Somaliland for the falso principles on which their game preservation was conducted —tho constitution of,a reserved shooting ground for military officers, but no safo refuge for the great mammals .who are fast nearing extinction in those regions. Tha Trade in Plumage. . The other .association, for tho Economic Preservation of Birds has latelybeen drawn into prominence by controversies in the I'ress. By its title it should be one of the most numerously followed and widely supported of all societies dealing in a practical manner with the preservation and utilisation of the earth's natural resources in birds. One pictures it as a body of men and womon engaged, like tho Societe d'Acclimatation of Paris, in attempting earnestly and scientifically to domesticate or semi-domesticate a variety of beautiful, rare, interesting, or useful birds in order to increase the stock of the world's wonders of creation.

Instead' of advancing along the lines .of such a programme —the preservation of wild birds for a hundred useful purposes—this committee (as far as _ one could judge from its account of itself delivered on February 16) has apparently only thought of how tho heedless, stupid trade in the skinsand plumes of rare and remarkable ■ birds might be carried on witnout interruption, despite the growing anger of an awakening world and the numerous contrary regulations already in force in British oversea Dominions, or under consideration in the Homeland. It asserts that it has already secured the protection of the lyro-bird and the exclusion of the feathers of this bird and five or six other species' of rare and persecuted birds from the operations of the feather trade. Its mouthpieces who make this statement ignore tne fact that the Lyrebird and other threatened Australian bird-forms were saved from extinction a year of two before this eommittoo sprang into existence, thanks firstly and mainly to the action of Mr. Walter Rothschild,,-Ml?;,James-.Buckland, and others; and,' secondly, to the ■ legislation of the Australian Commonwealth. To assert now that owing t-o the persuasion of this committee _no trade is done in lyre-bird plumes is merely to say that defiance of laws in forco in Australia is deprecated. Neither in Australia nor .anywhere else has this committee procured the making of laws to promote the preservation of birds ; nor has it, as at present constituted, any means of securing respect for such laWs so long as there are markots for the sale of prohibited plumage m tho principle countries of Europe.

Mr. Hobhouse's Bill. Tho only way to save the numerous species of valuable birds from extinction is to enact such laws as that comprised in tho Bill which Mr. Hobhouso is shortly to present to Parliament. Onco this measure is passed the market for the sale of wild bird skins and plumes of tho kinds that are threatened in.their existence will be much restricted, aud we may look with certainty to seoing France, Holland, Belgium', and Germany follow our example. Then, when this closo time is secured for birds of Paradise, Himalayan pheasants, kingfishers; humming birds, sun birds, gulls, terns, albatrosses, crowned pigeons, rheas, trogons, and bee-eaters, the Committee for tho Economic Preservation of Birds can get to work and formulate plans for tho economic preservation of birds—practical plans, not sentimental experiments like tho introduction of sparrows into New Zealand, or of robins into the United States; not hazardous schemes of domesticating birds of Paradise in Trinidad, but wise measures which shall tend to increaso the numbers of beautiful, harmless, and useful birds in tho lands to which they are indigenous, and simultaneous attempts to breed and show them' in a kindly arranged captivity—a captivity which, like that at Hagenbecli's, at tho London, New York, Berlin, or Amsterdam Zoological Gardens, is happier for tho birds than a wild existence.

Then can this committee tackle tho important question of domesticating two or three species of rhea, as the ostrich has been permanently saved for the legitimate purposes of the feather trade. Then may it help to snatch from extinction the monal of tho Hamalayas, the firebacks aud tragopahs of IndoMalaya, tho marvellous argus pheasants and peacock pheasants of Indo'China, and the lobiaphasis. of Borneo. This committee, born under dubious circumstances—since hitherto it has been little else than the handmaid of tho narrow interests of the heedless plumage traders—may, if rightly guided, pursue a mpsfc honourable and useful career of world-wide importance.

Kllllng-out of Animals. : /Ti to the older Society for the Prethe Fauna of tho Empire, it behoves, it not merely to keep an cyo on Africa (and in this respect it seems sojnewhat unheeding of tho reckless destruction of big gamo now going on in British East Africa), hut to grapplo seriously with tho scandalous kilhng-oufc of tho more remarkable of the Indian mammals, especially in North-West India and the border regions of Central Asia. This society must awaken both the intfian Government and tho India Offico to a sonse of responsibility for tho fauna of India. Dr. Chalmers Mitchell rendered a great servico to tho causo of fauna-preservation by publishing somo eighteen months ago in tho Proceedings of the Zoological Society an article on tho lack of legislation in British India for resonable bird prcservacfon.

But my main desire is to point out to tho puUlic that tho time has come for an Imperial stock-taking in tho matter of both fauna and flora. Tho great self-governing Dominions would gladly co-operatc. They have already dnno much moro in this respect than has beon achieved in tliß London-govorned Empire. From tha information they can supply us, from a thousand reports r.ow pigeon-holed and referring to the Crown Colonies and Protectorates and India from a further prompt and scientific inquiry to ho sot on foot in tiopical America, the Indian Empire,

Malaysia, Ceylon, and British Africa, there might be compiled a book showing wbat spceies of beast, bird, reptile, amphibian, and fresh-water fish are abundant; what aro rare; what are remarkable, beautiful, or of economic importance; what are harmful and should bo exterminated or allowed to die out; what native timber is worth preserving, or flowering plants, fruit, or nut trees and bushes, and so forth. Some three years ago T suggested that an inquiry of "this kind should' be tacked on to the Commission that was sent abroad to'inquire into the economic resources of our possessions, but no notice was taken of my appeal in any quarter, and the gap still remains to be filled.