FEATHERED VICTIMS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 240, 3 July 1908, Page 7

FEATHERED VICTIMS.

: FASHION'S TAX ON BIIID-LIFK (BY TELEGEAPH—PItESS ASSOCIATION— COPYBIGET.) London, July 1. In the House of Lords, the Sclect Com-mittee-which is considering Lord Avebury's Importation of Plumes Prohibition Bill examined Colonel 0. Ryan, of Melbourne, who said he was v persuaded that Mr. Deakin, Federal Premier, will take steps to stop the present destruction of egrets. STATISTICS OF. PLUME TRAFFIC. The toxt of a Bill, to be introduced in the British Parliament, to prohibit the importation, for the purposo of sale dr exchange, of the plumage of any. dead wild bird,'except ostriches, wild ducks, or wild birds used as articles of diet, has beeu published. j In the memorandum explaining the Bill some extraordinary figures are given to illustrate the "wanton and wholesale destruction of birds which is being 'carried on everywhere throughout the British Ernpiro and in all parts of the world." At the plur-o auctions hold in London during the last six months of 1307 there were catalogued, it is stated, 19,742 skins of birds-of-paradiso, 1411 packages of nesting plumes of the white heron, representing the feathers of nearly 115,000 birds, ' ' Immense numbers of the leathers and skins, of almost evorv known species of ornamental plumaged birds. At the Juno sale, held at the Commercial Sale Rooms, . , , 1308 orowned pigeons heads wero sold. Among miscellaneous bird skins, one firm of auctioneers catalogued over 20,000 kingfishers. A deplorable feature o£ recent sales, it is added, is the offer of large numbers of lyro birds' tails and of albatross' quills. It is contended that tho constant repetition of such figures—and these sales take placo at least overy two months—shows that the Legislature must choose between tho extermination or the protection of the birds in. question. It is pointed out that legislation on the lines proposed is already in effect in tho Stato of New York, where tho ontire feather trade of tho United States has its centre.