OSPREYS AND AIGRETTES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 46, 24 February 1914, Page 4

OSPREYS AND AIGRETTES.

Following on the drastic legislation in America about ospreys and aigrettes, and the suggestion that Fugland should follow suit, Fren di importers of plumage are offering a prize of Uni thousand franc's MM did to anyone who will fiiid a means of domesticating the egret, so that its plumes can lie taken from it as easily and harmlessly as those of the ostrich. The egret is a very shy bird, and such a means is not likely to be quickly found, for the obtaining of the plumes has been quite difficult and expensive enough to stimulate effort in this direction for years past. An international commission has just lieen formed to examine into the host measures -for the regulation of the industries of ivory-hunting, whalehunting, plumage-gathering, and all other trades which attack the security of tribes of animals, fish, and birds. Apart from the question of cruelty, some of these trades are threatened with extinction owing to the approach of the day .when the creatures on w.hich they thrive will have been hunted out of existence.