Page 149 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

EXTERMINATION FOR WOMEN'S HATS
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It must not be inferred that the friends of birds in England have beenidleorsilentinthepresenceoftheLondonfeathertrade. Onthe contrary, the Royal Society for the Protection of Wild Birds and Mr. James Buckland have so strongly attacked the feather industry that the London Chamber of Commerce has felt called upon to come to its rescue. Mr. Buckland, on his own individual account, has done yeoman service to the cause, and his devotion to the birds, and his tireless energy, are both almost beyond the reach of praise in words. At the last moment before going to press I learn that the birds'-plumage bill has achieved the triumph of a "first reading" in Parliament, which looks as if success is at last in sight. The powerful pamphlet "that he has written, published and circulated at his own expense, entitled "Pros and Cons of the Plumage Bill," is a splendid effort. What a pity it is that more individuals are not similarly inspired to make independent effort in theprotectioncause! But,strangetosay,fewindeedarethemenwho have either the nerve or the ability to "go it alone."
On the introduction in Parliament of the bill to save the birds from the feather trade, it was opposed (through the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce), on the ground that if any bill against the sale of plumes should pass, and plumes could not be sold, the London business in wild- bird skins and feathers "would immediately be transferred to the con- tinent!"
In the face of that devastating and altogether horrible prospect, and because the London feather dealers "need the money," the bill was at first defeated—to the great joy of the Chamber of Commerce and Mr. Downham; but the cause of birds will win in the end, because it is Right.
The feather dealers have been shrewdly active in the defense of their trade, and the methods they have employed for influencing public opinion hav^ quiteoutshonethoseputforthbytheirbrethreninAmerica. Ihave before me a copy of a booklet bearing the name of Mr. C. F. Downham as the author, and the London Chamber of Commerce has loaned its goodnameaspublisher. Altogetheritisaveryshrewdpieceofwork, even though its arguments in justification of bird slaughter for the feather market are too absurd and weak for serious consideration.
The chief burden of the defender of bird slaughter for millinery pur- poses is on account of the destruction of egrets and herons, but partic- ularlytheformer. Tooffsetasfaraspossibletheabsolutelytruecharge that egrets bear their best plumes in their breeding season, when the helpless young are in the nest and the parent birds must be killed to obtain the plumes, the feather trade has obtained from three French- men—Leon Laglaize, Mayeul Grisol, and F. Geay—a beautiful and plausible story to the effect that in Venezuela the enormous output of egret plumes has been obtained by picking up, off the bushes and out of thewaterandmud,theshedfeathersofthosebirds! Accordingtothestory, Venezuela is full of egret farms, called "garceros,"—where the birds breed and moult under strict supervision, and kindly drop their feathers in such places that it is possible to find them, and to pick them up, in a