Page 147 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

EXTERMINATION FOR WOMEN'S HATS
125
Egret ("Osprey") skins, long Vulture feathers, per pound
Eagle, wing feathers, bundles of 100 Hawk, wing feathers, bundles of 100 Mandarin I^ucks, per skin
Pheasant tail feathers, per pound Crown Pigeon heads, Victoria Crown Pigeon heads, Coronatus Emu skins
Cassowary plumes, per ounce Swanskins
Kingfisher skins
African Golden Cuckoo
36 "
1.68 " 84 " 4.56 "
72" 07 "
2.40 4.56 .09 .12 .15 l.SO 2.50 1.20 4.80 3.48 .74 .09
1.68
Many thouj^hts are suggested by these London lists of l:)ird slaughter and loot.
It will be noticed that the breast of the grebe has almost wholly dis- appeared from the feather market and from women's hats. The reason is that there are no longer enough birds of that group to hold a place in the London market ! Few indeed are the Americans who know that from
1900 to 1908 the lake region of southern Oregon was the scene of the slaughter of uncountable thousands of those birds, which continued until the grebes were almost exterminated.
When the wonderful lyre-bird of Australia had been almost extermi- nated for its tail feathers, its open slaughter was stopped by law, and a heavy fine was imposed on exportation, amounting, I have been told, to $250 for each oifense. My latest news of the lyre-bird was of the surreptitious exportation of 200 skins to the London feather market.
In India, the smuggling outward of the skins of protected birds is constantly going on. Occasionally an exoorter is caught and fined ; but that does not stop the traffic.
Bird-lovers must now bid farewell forever to all the birds of paradise. Nothing but the legal closing of the world's markets against their plumes andskinscansaveanyofthem. Theyneverwerenumerous;nordoes anyspeciesrangeoverawidearea. Theyarestrictlyinsular,andtheis- land homes of some of them are very small. Take the great bird of para- dise(Paradiseaapoda)asanillustration. OnOct.2,1912,atIndianapoHs, Indiana, a city near the center of the United States, in three show-windows within 100 feet of the headquarters of the Fourth National Conservation Congress, I counted 11 stuffed heads and 11 complete sets of plumes of thisbird,displayedforsale. Thepricesrangedfrom$30to$47.50each! And while I looked, a large lady approached, pointed her finger at the remains of a greater bird of paradise, and with grim determination, said to her shopping companion : "There! I want one o' them, an' I'm agoin' to have it, too!"
Says Mr. James Buckland in "Pros and Cons of the Plumage Bill":
' 'MrGoodfellowhasreturnedwithinthelastfewweeksfromasecond expedition to new Guinea. * * One can now walk, he states, miles and miles through the former haunts ofthese birds [of paradise] without