Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-15
TARIFF BILL CHANGE
STIRS BIRD LOVERS
Senate Amendment Said to
NuIIify House Provision for
Their Protection.
To the Editor of The Star:

|
The tariff bill as it left the House
of Representatives contained a provi-
sion prohibiting the importation of
the plumage of any wild bird, except
for educational or scientific purposes.
The bill now comes out of the Senate
finance committee with the additional
exception of the plumage of game
birds and pests
1t is not necessary to review the
conditions that led to the demand for
the original provision-a demand that
deluged the ways and means commit
tee with letters. petitions and resolu-
tions and that was unopposed except
by a few importers and very few
dealers in imported millinery goods
it will suffice to say that the enormous
slaughter of birds for millinery pur-
poses now going on-greater than ever
before in the history of the world
threatens the early determination of
many beautiful and valuable species.
and that the whole civilized world has
become alarmed and aroused.
So much for that. The point of i'm
mediate interest is that the Senate
amendment to allow importation of the
plumage Of game birds and pests will,
if it finally prevails, go far toward
For among the birds in danger of ex-
termination by the purveyors for the
plumage trade the following are or
have been at certain times or in GER
tain countries accounted pests: Herons
Gncluding egrets. which furnish the
well known aigrette), kingfshers.
magpies pigeons, doves, skylarks, peli-
cans. spoonbills. albatrosses, grebes,
gulls, terms, condors, vultures, falcons,
kites, eagles, owls and hawks. And the
following are claSsed as game birds
Bustards impeyan pheasants, argus
pheasants, silver pheasants golden
pheasants, jungle fowls and peacocks.
| 1t may be added that Italy and other
Mediterranean countries count as Ie-
ultimate game all the small birds,
| which, during the migration. are de-
stroyed in vast numbers for market
| Would Protect But Few.
| 1t ic probable that the importers will
endeavor. perhaps with success to
| bring within the exemption as pests
or game many other plumage birds
such as ibses, storks. birds of para
disc. parrots. tanagers, rheas, trojons
glossy starlinSs. macaws and toucans
and to reduce the list of prohibited
birds to humming birds, sunbirds, emus
and one or two other species.
| The excepting of game birds and
pests may thus practically nullify the
excellent measure adopted by the
| House of Representatives. 1t is a very
specious amendment this exemption OF
pests and game birds, and makes very
plausible appeal to the average man
| 1t would seem on the face of the
proposition to be perfectly proper and
| Just to permit the use for hat oecora
tion of the feathers of birds killed
| for food or in protection of crops OF
the fishing interests. rather than throw
| them away. and thus incur an appar-
| emily useless economic loss. But the
| truth is that it will not be the feath-
ers of birds thus killed that will be
| imported. but the feathers of so called
game birds and pests killed solely fol
| the millinery trade. The golden and
| silver pheasants of China and the i'm
peyan pheasant of India. which might
be killed for food for many years We,
| without serious decrease. are now
nearing extinction at the hands of the
| emissaries of a few mlllinerS at Lon
DON Paris and Berlin, who do not care
what disposition is made of the bodies
provided they secure the plumage. The
eXterminat ton of the bison, or Ameri-
can buffalo, so recent as to be fresh III
our minds. was due to the demand fol
its hide not for its body, which was
usually left to rot on the plains after
the coveted skin had been removed
The same condition arose in connec-
! ton with the hunting of the big Alas
!
demand and comma nded a price of sew
eral hundred dollars pair. The
| sportsmen who visited Alaska com
planned bitterly of the regulations Of
the United States government which
permitted them to kill these moose ir
! limited numbers. but prohibited the
export of the trophies. why they
said. must we let the trophies rot
on the ground rather than take then
| home?" 1t seemed a reasonable com
plant, but the government had found
| that if they were permitted to export
their trophies there would soon be ne
| moose as the animals would be shot
in great numbers solely for their val
| liable horns.
Wrongly Classed as Pests.
! In like manner is the millinery trade
under present conditions. eXtermlnat
ing for their pluma2e such game birds
and pests as are valuable from tn,
a