The Feather Thief

The family Paradisaeidae, which is more commonly known as the Birds of Paradise, have more than three dozen species. These birds are primarily found in New Guinea and Australia. They are best known for their bright plumage of green, blue, scarlet, and yellow, making them some of the most beautiful birds on the planet. Males have especially ornate plumage, which they use to attract females during mating season. The mating rituals can last for hours and include elaborate dances that accentuate their plumes to females.

The extravagant plumage adversely impacted the survival of the Birds of Paradise. These birds evolved in places that lacked natural predators. As Johnson notes, “There were no civets or cats hunting them on the remote islands. No monkeys or squirrels with which to compete for fruit and nuts. For millions of years, there were no humans to cut their trees down or hunt them for their feathers” (28). For this reason, the birds did not develop defense mechanisms, including the ability to blend into their surroundings. In fact, for millions of years, standing out in their environment promoted survival. Female mate preferences, thus, generated the elaborate plumage seen in males, which is an example of runaway selection.

Prior to Alfred Russel Wallace, no naturalist had seen these birds in the wild. Wallace was determined to change this on his expedition to the Malay Archipelago. Yet, in doing so, he also laid the groundwork for these birds’ near-extinction. They were hunted for women’s clothes and fishing flies during the Victorian era. These birds have still not recovered and many are considered endangered. Despite their precarious status, modern-day practitioners of the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying still use their feathers in their flies. Edwin stole several Birds of Paradise; several of which remain missing.

The Tring museum is a suburban outpost of the British Natural History Museum. Tring is a market town located 40 miles north of London, England. British banker and politician Nathaniel Rothschild built the museum for his son Lionel Walter Rothschild’s 21st birthday. Walter was a prolific collector. Upon his death, his collection was given to the British Natural History Museum.

The Tring Museum houses one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, including “750,000 bird skins, 15,000 skeletons, 17,000 birds preserved in spirit, 4,000 nests, and 400,000 sets of eggs, gathered over the centuries from the world’s most remote forests, mountainsides, jungles, and swamps” (4). Many of these specimens were collected by leading mid-19th century naturalists, including Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Darwin and Wallace’s bird skins were moved to this museum during World War II to prevent their destruction.

Throughout the book, Johnson uses the Tring, which has had a string of burglaries in recent years including Edwin’s feather heist, to highlight the vulnerability of museums in the modern era. 

Johnson coins the term “feather underground,” which refers to the illegal trade of rare bird feathers. Johnson initially found Edwin’s feather heist to be strange. Yet, as he dove into the mystery, he realized how problematic the feather underground truly is. Bird feathers, particularly those in museum collections, are sources of untold scientific knowledge. Theft of these feathers, then, results in catastrophic losses to humankind. Johnson tells the story of the Tring missing bird skins in hopes that more people understand the importance of bird feathers to our understanding of our past, present, and future. He also hopes to bring the feather underground to light so that fewer people are interested in the illegal feather trade.

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace concurrently came up with the theory of natural selection. They both believed that natural selection drove evolution. Evolution is the idea that species change over time. Some of these species die out and others survive, giving rise to new species. All these species have a common ancestor.

Natural selection results in some populations having certain traits that make them well-suited to their environment. Those with these traits outlive those who do not have them and continue to pass on these traits through offspring. Wallace describes this theory as: “it suddenly flashed upon me that this self-acting process would necessarily improve the race, because in every generation the inferior would inevitably be killed off and the superior would remain—that is, the fittest would survive” (31).