s certainly not true
to-day. Indeed, as early as 1858 we read that "This splendid bird, once
so abundant on the Western Himalayas is now far from being so, in
consequence of the numbers killed by sportsmen on account of its beauty.
Whole tracts of mountain forest once frequented by the moonal are now
almost without a single specimen." The same author goes on naively to
tell the reader that "Among the most pleasant reminiscences of bygone
days is a period of eleven days, spent by the author and a friend on the
Choor Mountain near Simia, when among other trophies were numbered
sixty-eight moonal pheasants, etc."

[Illustration: SILVER PHEASANT SKINS SEIZED AT RANGOON, BRITISH BURMA
About 600 Skins out of Several Thousand Confiscated in the Custom House,
on their way to the London Feather Market. Photographed by Mr. Beebe]

For some unaccountable reason there is, or was for many years, a very
prevalent idea that the enormous number of skins which have poured into
the London market were from birds bred in the vicinity of Calcutta. When
we remember the intense heat of that low-lying city, and learn from the
records of the Calcutta Zoological Garden that impeyans and tragopans
are even shorter-lived than in Europe, the absurdity of the idea is
apparent. In spite of numberless inquiries throughout India, I failed to
learn of a single captive young bird ever hatched and reared even in the
high, cool, hill-stations. The commercial value of an impeyan skin has
varied from five dollars to twenty dollars, according to the number
received annually. In 1876 an estimate placed the monthly average of
impeyans received in London at from two to eight hundred.

In such a case as Nepal, direct protective laws are of no avail. All
humane arguments are useless, but if the markets at the other end _can
be closed_, the slaughter will cease instantly and automatically.

[Illustration: DEADFALL TRAPS IN BURMA
A Long Series set Across a Valley, by the Kachins of the Burma-Chinese
Border. A Wholesale Method of Wild-life Slaughter, Photographed by C.
William Beebe, 1910]

As a contrast to the millinery hunter of fifty years ago it is
refreshing to find that at last sincere efforts are being made in
British possessions to stop this traffic. I happened to be at Rangoon
when six large bales of pheasant skins were seized by the Custom
officials. A Chinaman had brought them from Yunnan via Bhamo, and was
preparing to ship them as ducks' feathers. T