Page 217 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

CHAPTER XX
THE DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS IN THE FAR EAST*
By C. William Beebe Curator of Birds, New York Zoological Park
In chapter XIII, treating of the " Extermination of Birds for Women's Hats," Dr. Hornaday has dealt fully with the feather and plumage traffic after it enters the brokers' hands, and has proved conclusively that the plumes of egrets are gathered from the freshly killed birds. We may trace the course of the plumes and feathers backward through the tightly-packed bales and boxes in the holds of the vessels to the ports of the savage lands whence they were shipped; then to the skilful, dark hands of Mexican peon, Venezuelan Indian, African negro or Asiatic Chinaman or Malay, who stripped the skin from the flesh; and finally to the jungle or mountain side or terai where the bird gave up its life to blowpipe, cross-bow, blunderbuss or carefully set snare.
In various trips to Mexico, Venezuela and other countries in the tropics of the New World I have seen many such scenes, but not until I had completed a seventeen months' expedition in search of pheasants, through some twenty wild countries of Asia and the East Indies, did I realize the havoc which is being wrought week by week everywhere on theglobe. Whilewewereabsenteventhesefewmonthsfromthegreat centers of civilization, tremendous advances had been made in air-ships and the thousand and one other modern phases of human development, but evolution in the world of Nature as we observed it was only destruc- tive—a world-wide katabolism—a retrogression often discernible from monthtomonth. Wecouldscarcelyrepeatthetripandmakethesame observations upon pheasants, so rapidly is this group of birds approach- ing extinction.
The causes of this destruction of wild life are many and diverse, and resemble one another only in that they all emanate from mankind. To the casual traveller the shooting and trapping of birds for millinery pur- poses at first seems to hold an insignificant place among the causes. But this is only because in many of the larger ports, the protective laws are more or less operative and the occupation of the plume hunter is
*The observations which furnished this valuable chapter were made by Mr. Beebe in 1911 while conducting an expedition in southern Asia, Borneo and Java for the purpose of studying in Hfe and nature all the members of the Pheasant Family inhabit- ing that region. The results of these studies and collections will shortly appear in a very complete monograph of the Phasianidae.—W. T. H.