Our Vanishing Wild Life Part 23

Eagles 1,900 "

_Sold by Figgis & Co. Sold by Lewis & Peat_ Aigrettes 1,501 ounces Aigrettes 1,680 ounces Herons 140 " Herons 400 "

Paradise 318 skins Birds of Paradise 700 skins

If I am correctly informed, the London feather trade admits that it requires six egrets to yield one "ounce" of aigrette plumes. This being the case, the 21,528 ounces sold as above stand for 129,168 egrets killed for nine months' supply of egret plumes, for London alone.

The total number of bird corpses auctioned during these three sales is as follows:

Aigrettes, 21,528 ounces = 129,168 Egrets.

Herons, 2,683 " = 13,598 Herons.

20,698 Birds of Paradise.

41,090 Hummingbirds.

9,464 Eagles, Condors, etc.

9,472 Other Birds.

------- Total number of birds 223,490

It is to be remembered that the sales listed above cover the transactions of four firms only, and do not in any manner take into account the direct importations from Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam of manufacturers and other dealers. The defenders of the feather trade are at great pains to a.s.sure the world that in the monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly sales, feathers often appear in the market twice in the same year; and this statement is made for them in order to be absolutely fair. Recent examinations of the plume catalogues for an entire year, marked with the price _paid_ for each item, reveals very few which are blank, indicating no sale! The subtractions of the duplicated items would alter the result only very slightly.

The full extent of England's annual consumption of the plumage of wild birds slaughtered especially for the trade never has been determined. I doubt whether it is possible to ascertain it. The information that we have is so fragmentary that in all probability it reflects only a small portion of the whole truth, but for all that, it is sufficient to prove the case of the Defenders of the Birds _vs_. the London Chamber of Commerce.

IMPORTS OF FEATHERS AND DOWN (ORNAMENTAL) FOR THE YEAR 1910

_Pounds_ _Value_ Venezuela 8,398 $191,058 Brazil 787 5,999 j.a.pan 2,284 3,830 China 6,329 16,308 Tripoli 345 900 Egypt 21,047 89,486 Java, Sumatra, and Borneo 15,703 186,504 Cape of Good Hope 709,406[E] 9,747,146 British India 18,359 22,137 Hong-Kong 310 3,090 British West Indies 30 97 Other British Colonies 10,438 21,938

[Footnote E: Chiefly Ostrich feathers.]

The above does not take into account the feathers from game birds received in England from France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium and the Netherlands.

As a final side-light on the quant.i.ty of egret and heron plumes offered and sold in London during the twelve months ending in April, 1912, we offer the following exhibit:

"OSPREY" FEATHERS (EGRET AND HERON PLUMES) SOLD IN LONDON DURING THE YEAR ENDING APRIL. 1912

_Offered_ _Sold_ Venezuelan, long and medium 11,617 ounces 7,072 ounces Venezuelan, mixed Heron 4,043 " 2,539 "

Brazilian 3,335 " 1,810 "

Chinese 641 " 576 "

19,636 ounces 11,997 ounces

Birds of Paradise, plumes (2 plumes = 1 bird) 29,385 24,579

[Ill.u.s.tration: BEAUTIFUL AND CURIOUS BIRDS NOW BEING DESTROYED FOR THE FEATHER TRADE--(III) Griffon Vulture Herring Gull Jabiru Condor Emeu Indian Adjutant]

Under the head of "Hummingbirds Not Wanted," Mr. Downham is at great pains to convey[F] the distinct impression that to-day hummingbirds are scorned by the feather trade, and the demand for them is dead. _I believed him_--until my agent turned in the following statement:

Hummingbirds sold by Lewis & Peat, London, February, 1911 24,800 Hummingbirds sold by Lewis & Peat, London, May, 1911 6,250 Hummingbirds sold by Hale & Sons, London, October, 1911 10,040 ------ Total 41,090

It is useless for anyone to a.s.sert that these birds were merely "offered," and not actually sold, as Mr. Downham so laboriously explains is the regular course with hummingbird skins; for that will deceive no intelligent person. The statement published above comes to me direct, from an absolutely competent and reliable source.

[Footnote F: "The Feather Trade," by C.F. Downham, p. 63-4.]

Undoubtedly the friends of birds, and likewise their enemies, will be interested in the prices at which the skins of the most beautiful birds of the world are sold in London, prior to their annihilation by the feather industry. I submit the following exhibit, copied from the circular of Messrs. Lewis & Peat. It is at least of academic interest.

PRICES OF RARE AND BEAUTIFUL BIRD SKINS IN LONDON

Condor skins $3.50 to $5.75 Condor wing feathers, each .05 Impeyan Pheasant .66 " 2.50 Argus Pheasant 3.60 " 3.85 Tragopan Pheasant 2.70 Silver Pheasant 3.50 Golden Pheasant .34 " .46 Greater Bird of Paradise: Light Plumes: Medium to giants 10.32 " 21.00 Medium to long, worn 7.20 " 13.80 Slight def. and plucked 2.40 " 6.72 Dark Plumes: Medium to good long 7.20 " 24.60 12-Wired Bird of Paradise 1.44 " 1.80 Rubra Bird of Paradise 2.50 Rifle Bird of Paradise 1.14 " 1.38 King Bird of Paradise 2.40 "Green" Bird of Paradise .38 " .44 East Indian Kingfisher .06 " .07 East Indian Parrots .03 Peac.o.c.k Necks, gold and blue .24 " .66 Peac.o.c.k Necks, blue and green .36 Scarlet Ibis .14 " .24 Toucan b.r.e.a.s.t.s .22 " .26 Red Tanagers .09 Orange Oriels .05 Indian Crows' b.r.e.a.s.t.s .13 Indian Jays .04 Amethyst Hummingbirds .01-1/2 Hummingbird, various 3/16 of .01 " .02 Hummingbird, others 1/32 of .01 " .01 Egret ("Osprey") skins 1.08 " 2.78 Egret ("Osprey") skins, long 2.40 Vulture feathers, per pound .36 " 4.56 Eagle, wing feathers, bundles of 100 .09 Hawk, wing feathers, bundles of 100 .12 Mandarin Ducks, per skin .15 Pheasant tail feathers, per pound 1.80 Crown Pigeon heads, Victoria 1.68 " 2.50 Crown Pigeon heads, Coronatus .84 " 1.20 Emu skins 4.56 " 4.80 Ca.s.sowary plumes, per ounce 3.48 Swan skins .72 " .74 Kingfisher skins .07 " .09 African Golden Cuckoo 1.08

Many thoughts are suggested by these London lists of bird slaughter and loot.

It will be noticed that the breast of the grebe has almost wholly disappeared 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 exterminated 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 offense. My latest news of the lyre-bird was of the surrept.i.tious 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 exporter 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 and skins can save any of them. They never were numerous; nor does any species range over a wide area. They are strictly insular, and the island homes of some of them are very small. Take the great bird of paradise (_Paradisea apoda_) as an ill.u.s.tration. On Oct. 2, 1912, at Indianapolis, 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 this bird, displayed for sale. The prices ranged from $30 to $47.50 each! 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":

"Mr. Goodfellow has returned within the last few weeks from a second expedition to new Guinea.... One can now walk, he states, miles and miles through the former haunts of these birds [of paradise] without seeing or hearing even the commonest species. When I reflect on this sacrilege, I am lost in wonder at the apathy of the British public."

Mr. Carl Hagenbeck wrote me only three months ago that "the condors of the Andes are all being exterminated for their feathers, and these birds are now very difficult to obtain."

The egret and heron plumes, known under the trade name of "osprey, etc., feathers," form by far the most important item in each feather sale.

There are _fifteen_ grades! They are sold by the ounce, and the prices range all the way from twenty-eight cents per ounce for "mixed heron" to _two hundred and twenty-five s.h.i.+llings_ ($45.60) per ounce for the best Brazilian "short selected," on February 7, 1912! Is it any wonder that in Philadelphia the prices of finished aigrettes, ready to be worn, runs from $20 to $125!

The plumes that run up into the big figures are the "short selected"

coming from the following localities, and quoted at the prices set down here in s.h.i.+llings and pence. Count the s.h.i.+lling at twenty-four cents, United States money.

PRICES OF "SHORT SELECTED" EGRET AND HERON PLUMES, IN LONDON ON FEBRUARY 7, 1912

(Lewis & Peat's List)

East Indies per ounce, 117/6 to 207/6 = $49.80 max.

Rangoon " " 150/0 " 192/6 = 46.20 "

China " " 130/0 " 245/0 = 58.80 "

Brazil " " 200/0 " 225/0 = 54.00 "

Venezuela " " 165/0 " 222/6 = 53.40 "

The total offering of these "short selected" plumes in December 1911, was 689 ounces, and in February, 1912, it was 230 ounces.

Now with these enormous prices prevailing, is it any wonder that the egrets and herons are being relentlessly pursued to the uttermost ends of the earth? I think that any man who really knows the habits of egrets and herons, and the total impossibility of any quant.i.ty of their shed feathers being picked up in a marketable state, must know in his heart that if the London and continental feather markets keep open a few years longer, _every species_ that furnishes "short selected" plumes will be utterly exterminated from off the face of the earth.