348 Sfafc Horticultural Society. 



The aim of the Audubon Society must therefore be to unite with tlie 

 teachers in the school and in the pulpit in the endeavor to change the pre- 

 vailing indifference, disregard and contempt for our feathered fellow- 

 creatures into a sentiment of sympathetic interest and consequent friend- 

 ship. With the children this effort will undoubtedly be successful, and 

 future generations will not need Audubon Societies, but the present, 1 

 am afraid, can not be converted so easily and their education must m 

 many instances go through the court room. 



In a few states Bird days like Arbor days, and in connection witii 

 them, have been established or are advocated by Audubon Societies, but 

 school days set apart for such a purpose easily degenerate into holidays 

 without doing much good to the cause for which they are intended. I 

 would recommend that the teachers say a good word for the birds as 

 often as opportunity offers, and in this way have a bird day every day of 

 school 



Last but not least, there is one more field of labor open for the Audu- 

 bon Society. It is on the battlefield against the foolish fashion of women 

 to adorn their hats with the dead bodies of birds. No laws can be enforced 

 which forbids the wearing of birds or feathers ; the only wav to 

 stop it is to prohibit their importation. State laws are eft'cctive 

 enough to see that no American birds are used for this purpose, 

 and if none can be imported, the dear creatures must ornament 

 their sweet hats with something that can be obtained with less 

 savagery and cruelty than the dead bodies of birds, which as a 

 rule have not only laid down their own lives at the altar of fashion, 

 but also that of their offspring, since nine-tenths are killed at the 

 breeding period, leaving young to starve in the nest. The reason for 

 this is that at the time of reproduction birds wear their best dress, the 

 nuptial dress, which has the brightest colors and most resplendent lustre, 

 and also because the birds which at all other times are too wary to allow 

 approach, may easily be shot from the nest, since birds never desert their 

 young ones, even in the face of danger. 



Both importation and exportation of birdskins should be prohibited 

 by Federal laws. Exportation, because, unable to sell their birdskins on 

 this side of the ocean, the slaughterers would send them to foreign mar- 

 kets and nobody would be any wiser for it. We have already a law pro- 

 hibiting the importation of live birds without special permission of the 

 Department of Agriculture, and it is difficult to see why such a prohibition 

 could not be made possible with dead bodies of birds or parts thereof. 



It is to be hoped that our enlightened Congress will soon take steps 

 in this direction, and if our country takes the lead, other countries will 

 follow the example, and millions of bird lives will be saved thereby. 



