BIRDS OF PARADISE.
(To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
Si,—In reference to the letter from "D. C. L." (October 21st), may I say that on a previous appearance in "a great daily" of this advertisement of birds of paradise "direct from the hunter" the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds wrote to Dutch correspondents in the hope that further steps might be taken to stop the slaughter of- the birds in Dutch New Guinea? In reply, the Dutch Committee for Prohibition of Exportation of Birds and Birdskins from the Dutch Colonies (formed by the Royal Zoo- logical Society of Amsterdam) wrote detailing the measures taken, but remarking that prohibition of the import of such plumage into Europe would be the best way to put an end to bird-hunting :— " We are of opinion that for the present your country has it in Its power completely to stop the trade in birdskins. It would be quite in the line of the polities of economy adopted by the Allies to forbid all shipments of birds and birdskins to their ports. . . . If you could get your Government to take the desired steps, the war would at least have one good result—the abolition of the trade in birdskins for millinery purposes."
As an illustration of the fact that, while many useful imports are cut down to the utmost to save freightage, shipment of bird- skins goes on, it may interest your readers to know that a large cargo of magpie skins and feathers (of the Asiatic type of the Species) has been recently washed up on a part of the English coast, no doubt from some wrecked or mined vessel and evidently intended for the plumassier.—I am, Sir, &c.,
L. GARDINER,
Secretary, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 23 Queen Anne's Gate, S.W.
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