BIRD PROTECTION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 280, 19 August 1908, Page 10

BIRD PROTECTION.

DETAILS OF THE AUSTRALIAN TRAFFIC. Lord Avebury's Bill, introduced into the British Parliament, to prohibit the importation of bird plumage, excepting eiderdown and ostrich feathers, is attracting the attention of bird-lovers the world over (writes "L.H." in the "Sydney Morning Herald"). Somo of the statistics adduced in support of it aro indeed startling. In six months, 20,000 skins of birds of ■ paradiso wero offered for • auction in London alone, as well as the plumes of 115,000 white herons; while at a single sale 138G heads of tho crowned pigeon wero sold, and one firm of auctioneers catalogued, among other birds skins, 20,000 kingfishers. Such ruthless slaughter seems incredible. How any woman: can reconcilo with her femininity tho wear-' ing of ail "osprey" in her hair, when she realises that her barbarous taste, and that of her sisters, havo boon responsible for tho slaughter of 115,000 breeding birds, and tho lingering starvation of at least 300,000 help T less nestlings, passes comprehension. Tho old cxcuso of ignorance will no longer hold good. Tho miserable facts have been broadcasted for and wide, and woman finds them in her newspaper side by side with her beloved fashions.

Wo Australians are deeply concerned in this question of bird protection, from both humane and economic points of view. As regards the former, "British New Guinea is now under Commonwealth control, and New Guinea is the great stronghold of the birds of paradise. A\ r e cannot claim for these glorious creatures that they serve any obvious economic purpose. They live in denso jungles, through which the light of day barely penetrates, and few aro permitted to see them in_ their living beauty. Their allotted .duty in the scheme of things is, as far as wo can judge, merely to keep a few' insects in check and to assist in tho propagation of a littlo vegetation. They aro not doing any active good in the service of man. But that does not givo us any right, moral or otherwise, to exterminate them. They are part of our entailed heritage, and wo owe it to our posterity to hand them down intact. As New Guinea is gradually opened up, the trade in these birds is growing enormously.. Ten years ago they were rare in the Sydney' shops, 'where now they may lie seen by the dozen. • Tourists and visitors bring them back in scorcs. A few days ago I saw a woman in Elizabeth Street with one in her hat,' or, rather, ; her hat obscured by one; which! threo years ago was unknown to science. And' as if it were not bad enough to sport the; poor creatures as Providence made them, a ; ' Sydneyshop window exhibits'. a horrible, monstrosity, iin which the • beautiful little; king bird of paradiso is invested with the. plumes of the red-plumed species, and backed; up by the crests of the Goura pigeon. Verily,, it takes a milliner, to paint the lily, and a; woman to soiind tho depths of barbarous badtaste. ■ 1

Part of New Guinea is ours, so for part of this vile traffic we must shoulder the respon-: sibility. But, coming closer home, there are. birds here in New South Wales which must, have our protection. Certainly our birds are" protected already, and a beautiful Act with': an ingenious series of pains and penaltiesmay be purchased for sixpence by anyone; interested; but as no one has ever'bothered; kr enforce a single-one of its provisions, ex-' cept.ing one or two isolated prosecutions for, shooting game birds in close season, it is not ! of much service .to the persecuted.birds. Our, legislators may affirm that their responsi-bility-ends with tho passing of a law, but; surely it is their duty to appoint reasonable, and possible means for tho carrying out of« its provisions. The police are given a listof names which conveys no meaning to them,; and a new duty is cast upon their already overfull hands, and there the matter ends. ■; Still, looking at things., simply from the, standpoint,.ofj humanjfje. and. r duty to 'those who shall come after us, tllere are two birds--.which conspicuously <^nig£rJoz>'our protection. Tho first of these is the New South; Wales bird of paradise, tho riflebird of the; Richmond River and adjacent scrubs. This bird is of intense - scientific interest, and of great beauty,' but is now almost on the.verge of extinction. One old foreign collector has spent over 20 years of his life shooting these for - the European market, and- has now retired on bis ill-gotten gains. The birds are shot on sight by thoughtless gunners whenover they show up near habitations, and half tho homes in,the northern scrub country contain a more or less dilapidated' skin. , As their habitat is limited, and they must move on as the scrub is cleared, the birds are probably doomed to ultimate extinction, but if an energetic and timely effort were mado they •might bo. preserved'"in the, forest reserves for many years to come. ■ ■ Tho'other bird that requires attention is the lyre-bird, which appears in the schedule of tho Bird Protection Act, but which. is nevertheless shot wholesale for its beautiful tail. The latter may bo seen every day openly exposed for .sale in.tho Sydney shop windows, a remarkablo tribute to the efficacy, of our protective measure. It is frequently stated that the lyre bird is rapidly becoming extinct. ;Tn Victoria this may be. the case, as the efforts of man have been ably backed up by that imported curse, the fox, which • destroys countless numbers of the larger ground-frequentin'g birds. ' But in the New South Wales coastal ranges Menu'ra, the mocker, is, still plentiful, and if rigorous action is taken will always remain so, unless the fox spreads to tho coastal districts. Even though it may be driven from its haunts in the rich sub-tropical bushes, the bird is just as much at home among the barren sandstone ranges, which man will njever disturb until he lias exhausted, all other land, and scienco has advanced sufficiently to turn them to his use. This bird has no economic use, hut it is among Australian birds what the waratah is among flowers, and the kangaroo among animals, a national emblem, in the preservation of which every Australian should tako pride. It also has a unique interest to tho scientific ornithologist, as it is a quite anomalous member of the group of true singing birds, and is in no way related to the pheasants, whose name it often bears. This fact accounts for tho wonderful voico which, discarding its own deep, throaty melody, can mimic the sibilant chattering of the smallest tit as .well as the louder voices of tho larger birds. Happily for . us, tho lyre-bird is firmly established 1 in our national parks, both -at Port Hacking and at Kuringgai Chase. These two, with . many ■ other plumaged birds, demand our protection on grounds of sentiment and humanity—poor grounds, perhaps, in this sordid and utilitarian age. It is no use appealing to the dealer and collector on their behalf, for long custom has made these callous. But surely there are enough right-minded people left in the world to abolish the demand for these birds and if women cannot bo made to feel, perhaps tho husbands and fathers who pay for their hats might be induced to insist that no birds be placed in them, save such as are killed for are' many other birds of brightly coloured plumage which are liable to .the same ruthless destruction, and which cannot be defended upon economic grounds; but fortunately we can advance a utilitarian plea for a number of species, and chief. among them tho egrets, or white herons, from which the plumes known as ospreys ■ aro taken. These birds . breed in large horonries along tho Murray swamps, and in similar localities, and a great number of tlicm aro slaughtered year by year for their plumes. The killing of tho adult birds involves tho slow starvation of their helpless young . Yeteiieso birds feed largely upon tho fresh-water mollucs, which'aro the intermediate hostsof that scourgo of our (locks, the liver Duke, and they thus prevent myriads of individuals of this parasitic pest from reaching the final stage- in which they find access to the sheep. Surely this work is in itself of sufficient importance to demand their preservation, apart from sontimental considerations. Pastoralists aro beginning to realise that tho wholesale destruction of birds which has taken place through the indiscriminate and careless use of rabbit poison is no longer to bo airily passed over, and plagues of grasshoppers, blowflies, and caterpillars aro driving tho lesson homo. Tho timo is now ripe for an appeal 011 behalf of tho birds, and such an appeal is being made to the Primo Minister of tho Commonwealth on behalf of tho -nluumge birds, which might weir be extended

to include all except game birds, 01 the pro sent protection is a" mere farce. 'And it : will be necessary, in addition to. the men passing of a Bill, to onsuro 'adcqiiato meaii" of its provisions being enforced, Tlio police should bo provided with full descriptions of all protected birds, and, if possible, with .coloured plates of them, while a volunteer body of honorary inspectors, such as have proced .so ' usoful in connection with -tlio fisheries, j might be appointed to assist in.the wcrk of V protection. A comprehensive Act and a willing body of workers to enforce;' it wiT'do • much towards the right treatment of •our feathered helpers, and the better, education • ! of the younger generation will,;teack.it to regard a bird with respect, rather..'than to .. chaugo it to a bundle of blood-stained fiathers at the earliest opportunity.