CO885-(20-21) — Page 610

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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the fashion. If the skins do not come to England it means that the dealers in the islands are hoarding the skins until they get a better price for them.

CHAIRMAN: You see, gentlemen, none of us here wants to approach this question from a prejudiced point of view; we are trying our level best from every point of view to get at the proper evidence.

Mr. JOSEPH I would like to ask Mr. Goodfellow if he would not account for it to a certain extent by the opening up and exploration of those countries; would not the continued shooting in à certain district tend to drive the birds further off

Mr. GOODFELLOW: I do not think it would drive them further afield because the birds of paradise mostly are so very local; there is no bird in any country which is so local as the bird of paradise. It is the one thing about New Guinea which is so conspicuous-the locality of the birds being so very restricted and a country so small as New Guinea supporting such a large number of species of birds of paradise. They are very much confined in their range and altitude, and they never leave these districts.

Mr. DUNSTALL: You mean some species--not generally, '

Mr. GOODFELLOW: All species I should say.

Mr. DUNSTALL: Some must be very widely distributed.

Mr. GOODFELLOW: There are two or three species widely distributed all over New Guinea, but practically, those species are not much used in the plumage trade. I never visited the sale rooms in London at all, and I do not know, but if you take birds like the king bird they are widely distributed all over New Guinea, and there is practically no fear of that species being exterminated.

Mr. DUNSTALL: The minor too?

Mr. OGILVIE-GRANT: The minor is not so widely distributed.

Mr. DOWNHAM: May I ask Mr. Goodfellow a question? As to the blue bird

of paradise, do you think that is a bird which is becoming scarcer!

Mr. GOODFELLOW: I think that of all the species, because it has such a very local range as far as one knows at present.

Mr. DOWNHAM: Have you any idea of the quantities that were obtained, say 20 years ago!

Mr. GOODFELLOW: It was almost unknown 20 years ago.

Mr. DOWNHAM: Say 10 years ago?

Mr. GOODFELLOW: No. I have only known the blue bird of paradise personally within the last three or four years; it comes only from British New Guinea, as far as I know, from practically one range of mountains there, or a semi-circle of mountains.

Mr. DOWNHAM: The reason I ask that question is this: It has been alleged, and statements have been made in the Press, that the trade is responsible for the extermination, decimation, or whatever you like to call it of that bird-the suggestion being that it has been used for the millinery trade-and has been slaughtered in such numbers that it is almost out of existence. You tell me that the bird is com- paratively a new bird, which is what we have always said, and our opinion is that instead of this bird getting any scarcer, as you suggest it may be, it seems to he getting commouer.

Mr. GOODFELLOW: That is certainly not the case.

Mr. DOWNHAM: As far as the supply is concerned, it looks as if some new parts have been opened up and they have found this bird in greater numbers.

Mr. GOODFELLOW: Do you go on the fact that more have come to the sale

rooms!

Mr. DOWNHAM: Partly, yes.

Mr. DUNSTALL: We have only had a half-dozen at a time.

Mr. GOODFELLOW: I will give you my experience about the blue bird of paradise. In 1908 I went to British New Guinea and I was particularly anxious to get some blue birds of paradise. I went through two mountain ranges, the Bartholomew Mountains and also part of the Owen Stanley Mountains, and I did not come across the bird at all. Cltimately I got one skin. In 1909 I went back again, practically, almost solely, with the object of getting that bird, I wanted to get some few living specimens it was not my object to get skins at all—and I travelled through a considerable portion of the Owen Stanley range to find the blue birds. In each village I got to in the different districts we asked the natives about

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the blue bird of paradise, and they would say that they knew where there was a dancing place (it was only at the dancing places that they seemed to be), but the birds had been shot off; there were no less than eight such dancing places to which I was taken by natives in the different districts, and although we spent days at each place there was no sign of the bird at all. For three weeks I had over 30 natives out from morning till night every day trying to locate these birds. They are extremely local; they do not range about the mountains; a pair of birds will keep in one locality for a whole season; and only one pair did I secure. are still living in Scotland; they were brought home in 1909, and those were They the only two we either saw or heard of at all. the fact that these birds are numerous in some parts, or rather in isolated regions I see that stress is being laid ou where the natives and shooters do not go, but in each village we were told " so-and- so's shooting party have been here and they killed off the birds last year.' Mr. DUNSTALL: We do not know how to meet a case like that.

That bird is

not understood as a trade bird; it is worth a shilling or two for trade purposes. It is worth a good deal more than that for naturalists' purposes, but we have nothing to do with that.

Mr. JOSEPH: You want to protect it by this Bill.

Mr. DUNSTALL: It does not concern us as a trade bird, but we are charged with its extermination.

Mr. GOODFELLOW: I only quote that instance. I was asked about the blue bird and I said that I thought of all birds it was getting scarce, but probably it has never been a prolific species.

CHAIRMAN: And such destruction as goes on is very possibly not trade destruc- tion at all, but so-called naturalist destruction!—A. (Mr. Goodfellow): Do you mean collecting for scientific purposes?

Q. For so-called scientific purposes-A. No. I think the number of skius coming through for scientific purposes is very few.

Q. What do you think they come for !—A. There is one point, that the natives kill a good many of those birds off; they are very keen on the feathers of the so-called blue bird. There are few birds in New Guinea that have bright blue plumage, and that is one of the species the natives are rather keen on, but I do not think their destruction amounts to such an enormous lot. I am quite sure that whenever

the shooters come across a blue bird they shoot it, because they always get a good price for it. I have heard of £17 being paid for one in Australia; at a dealer's shop in Sydney, in January, 1909. I was asked £17 for a skin, not that I intended buying it, of the blue bird.

In

Q. Are there any steps taken to protect these birds in New Guinea ?—A. British New Guinea there is supposed to be a protection of birds, but I am afraid it is rather lax. I should think the proof of that is that the raggiana skins still come through, although for three years the shooting is supposed to have been rigidly closed. Probably the great percentage of the people who go to British New Guinea, prospectors, gold miners, and everybody who goes tries to bring back a number of skins with him, and they all go down to Australia, and I suppose they are shipped from there to the sale rooms here. I know for a fact that the supervision of protect- ing the birds is practically nil there beyond that the absolute shooting of them is prohibited by the Government, but no steps are taken by the Government to see that the rules are enforced.

Q. This is very depressing, because I gather from you that birds of paradise are getting rare, but that in many species, at any rate, the trade is not responsible for that, because in those species certainly the natives would destroy them even if there was no export at all—A. Yes, in some species: but the natives do not use these plumes to any great extent.

Mr. DUNSTALL: Excuse me, we have had them here as used by the natives, any quantity, as girdles or head-dresses.

Mr. GOODFELLOW: But that does not compare with the demand for millinery

purposes.

Mr. DUNSTALL: There is a good deal for native adornment.

Mr. GOODFELLOW: But the population of New Guinea after all is not very great.

Mr. DUNSTALL: But still there is a certain amount for personal use.