“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

[Illustration:  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 assert 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