The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson

An amateur detective’s exposé of a disgusting hobby

In 2009, Edwin Rist, an American classical musician, broke into the Natural History Museum at Tring, a very prestigious institution located in a small town outside of London. Rist stole the preserved skins of 299 birds from the museum’s collection, some of which had been collected about 150 years earlier by the distinguished naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace. When writer Kirk Johnson heard about this strange crime, he decided to delve further into the case. His investigation resulted in the book The Feather Thief, published in 2018.

Why steal a bunch of dead birds? Because the particular species that Rist stole are prized for their rarity and the vivid colors of their feathers. Such feathers fetch a high price on the black market, with some birds selling for thousands of dollars. Most people are probably aware that the use of feathers in women’s fashion in the 19th and early 20th centuries drove many bird species towards the brink of extinction. The Feather Thief, however, brings our attention to a lesser-known threat to endangered bird species: fly fishermen. There is a subculture of hobbyists who tie salmon-fishing flies according to traditions established in the Victorian Era, when the “recipes” for such flies called for the feathers of rare, exotic, and now endangered birds. While Victorian fishermen may not have known better, these archaic techniques persist, and fly tiers continue to support a robust trade in questionably acquired feathers. They could use the dyed feathers of domestic fowl as a substitute, but many choose not to. Instead, they claim that they get their exotic feathers from “reputable sources,” but is their really any reputable source for dead Birds of Paradise? The CITES agreement on trade in endangered species should put a stop to this, but as Johnson points out, there are plenty of loopholes in the law, enforcement is underfunded, and the trade goes on. While Johnson’s exposé is eye-opening, it makes for a disgusting and depressing read.

There is certainly an interesting story here; I just wish someone else had written it. Johnson has no background as an investigative reporter, an ornithologist, or a law enforcement professional. He’s just a dilettante in this area, and an amateur sleuth, and it shows in his writing. At one point in his investigation he meets Dr. Richard Prum, an ornithologist at Yale who has amassed a great deal of research on the illegal trade in bird skins. Why couldn’t Prum have written this book? It would have made for a much more informative read. Instead, Johnson turns this story into a memoir in which he makes himself the main focus. It’s all about his search, his education, his feelings. He includes discussions of his former career and his wife’s pregnancy that have nothing to do with this case or this topic and don’t belong in this book. He tries way too hard to generate human interest by getting you to like these fly tiers before he exposes their crimes. Also, Johnson hides the existence of one of the major players in this case until about three quarters of the way into the book. This “character” should have been involved in the story from the beginning, but Johnson conceals him from the reader in order to make the mystery more suspenseful. It feels like a cheap cheat, and the book as a whole comes across rather amateurish. An article in National Geographic or Audubon magazine would impart more pertinent and useful information than what one gets from this book-length work.

Nevertheless, the fly-tying community and its black market for feathers are subjects that definitely should be brought to the attention of the wider public, so I respect Johnson’s efforts in that regard. I just think I could have learned more from a more capable investigative or science journalist.

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