A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



bility of a true slaughter, of mass destruction, was first offered by the 

 breechloader. 



In Brazil the hunter is free to hunt ; as yet there are no protective 

 laws. The consequence is that the larger animals — and even the 

 birds — are becoming rarer and rarer in the inhabited parts of the 

 country. In the State of Sao Paulo the Itahans, who have migrated 

 thither in very large numbers, are accustomed to kill, if they can, 

 every little bird they see, in order to put it in the pot. Fancelli 

 reckons that in Italy the number of birds killed yearly must amount 

 to one and a half millions. Moreover — and this is the greatest 

 danger — industry is already beginning to lay hands upon the living 

 jewels of the country. Industry, however, can be profitable only if 

 its raw materials — in this case the birds and animals of Brazil — are 

 delivered to it wholesale, for machinery offers it the possibility of 

 making a whole series of objects at the same cost and with the same 

 power, and so of offering goods at a price impossible to the craftsman. 



For industry the featiiers of the Brazilian birds are of the first 

 importance. The magnificent Silver Heron or Egret, the Gar9a real 

 of the Brazilians, bears on its back, at the mating-season, the 

 beautiful plumes known to the trade as aigrettes, and the way in 

 which this dazzling bird, an incomparable adornment of the land- 

 scape, has been persecuted all the world over, and in many places 

 completely extirpated, is one of the most shocking tragedies of the 

 animal world. In Venezuela alone, according to the official statistics, 

 1,538,738 Egrets were killed in the year 1898, while ten years later 

 only 257,916 could be secured, so far had the work of extermination 

 advanced. The gist of the matter, which should give everyone food 

 for thought, is simply this : in order that a few men may make 

 money, and women wear an ornament for a few years, some of the 

 loveliest creatures on earth are being destroyed for all time. 



Fashion is a capricious goddess, and although to-day it is not con- 

 sidered fashionable to trim hats with the skins of humming-birds, it 

 may be so to-morrow. But these fascinating birds — and others as 

 well, such as the Sahys and the Sanha^us — may be used for other 

 purposes besides trimming hats. Before the war I read that there 

 was a shoemaker in Paris who was making ladies' shoes of humming- 

 bird skins, two hundred skins being required for a single pair. 

 According to Kaeflein, before the war 400,000 skins of humming- 

 birds and 360,000 of other birds were imported into Europe from 

 Brazil in a comparatively short space of time. 



Fur animals do not play the same part in Brazil as in colder 



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