BIRD PROTECTION 385 



find the birds. The misery and suffering entailed can be im- 

 agined. Thus are the " stub " plumes, " aigrettes," and 

 " ospreys " procured. They are not manufactured, and what- 

 ever their color when sold, they were originally stripped from the 

 back, head, or neck of some white heron or egret. The absolute 

 extinction of these plume-bearing species is assured unless women 

 will stop wearing the plumes. 



A similar slaughter took place among the sea birds along the 

 Atlantic coasts. The birds were shot down on their breeding 

 grounds and their wings cut off. Many human lives have been 

 lost by reason of this nefarious business. In 1905 a warden 

 employed by the National Association of Audubon Societies 

 to protect the birds was murdered by plume hunters. The 

 reader will be spared further details of this barbarous trade. 



The number of birds killed in the United States each year 

 before the business was checked by law and public sentiment 

 cannot be estimated, but some figures can be given. A single 

 local taxidermist handled thirty thousand bird skins in one year. 

 A collector brought back eleven thousand skins from a three 

 months' trip. About seventy thousand bird skins were sent 

 to New York from a small district on Long Island in about four 

 months. American bird skins were shipped to London and 

 Paris. We may judge of the demand there for birds from the 

 fact that from one auction room in London there were sold in 

 three months over four hundred thousand bird skins from 

 America and over three hundred and fifty thousand from India. 

 One New York firm had a contract to supply forty thousand 

 skins to a Paris firm. 



The danger to birds multiples with the increase of population. 

 Gunners and sportsmen shoot birds mainly to supply the mar- 

 kets or for recreation ; but many persons shoot birds, large or 

 small, merely for sport or practice. Certain kinds of foreigners 

 shoot small birds for sport, and eat them. These people go 

 out in squads, and each man shoots at every bird within range, 



whether sitting or flying. 

 2 c 



