3io To the River Plate and Back 



ica, whence in the fall of the year it migrated to the 

 uplands of Sao Paulo and to the pampas of Argentina. 

 It has become almost totally extinct. Breeding at one 

 time in immen e numbers in the region of Hudson Bay, 

 it passed southward along the Atlantic seaboard and 

 by way of the West Indies to the southern portions of 

 South America. Both on its way south and on its way 

 north, and on the plains where it sought its winter 

 home, it was shot for the table, and to-day has dis- 

 appeared from the face of the earth almost as com- 

 pletely as the passenger pigeon. A few still survive, but 

 very few. The destruction of living things within the 

 past fifty years has been going on at such a rate, that it 

 is the highest time to seek concerted action on the part 

 of the various governments to stay the slaughter, and 

 conserve what is left. Many of the birds of North 

 America spend the winter in the lands of Central and 

 South America, and it is to the interest of the two 

 Americas that steps should be taken to protect the 

 bird-life of the two continents. The most reprehensible 

 use to which birds are put is as articles of millinery. 

 Brazilian humming-birds are sold as hat-trimmings in 

 the London markets by the hundreds of thousands, and 

 millions of other bright-plumaged birds are annually 

 disposed of in this way, so that whole tribes and races 

 of feathered songsters are almost gone from the face 

 of the globe. The wickedness of this slaughter of the 

 innocents will bring to this world a sad recompense of 

 evil, for the result is a destruction of the balance of 

 nature, and an enormous increase of insect-life. Kill 

 the birds, and the result is a multiplication of insect- 

 pests, which ravage the fields and the orchards. The 

 present high cost of living, of which complaint is be- 

 ing made in all lands, is partly attributable to the 



