Proposals for a Plumage Bill

Abstract

THE suggestion made by Prof. Duerden (NATURE, January 15) for special breeding of birds as an alternative to prohibiting imports of their plumage is unacceptable to us for several reasons, but of these I need now only mention one, since this one appears to us conclusive. We hold that it would be impossible for the Customs to differentiate between the feathers of those birds which had been “farmed” and of those which had fallen victims to the ruthless plume-hunter. Prof. Duerden is, perhaps, unaware that a scheme similar to that which he adumbrates was advanced in 1914 by the Committee for the Economic Preservation of Birds, and was considered by the Government of the day to be unworkable.