MAN AS AN ENEMY OF BIRDS 169 



bobolinks, larks, orioles, and woodpeckers. He 

 recognized the plumage of forty species of common 

 song-birds. Out of seven hundred hats counted in 

 one afternoon, five hundred and forty-two were 

 decorated with feathers. 



When the shooting of song-birds was more gener- 

 ally prohibited by law, some of the water-birds, such 

 as the gulls, terns, and herons, were next slaughtered 

 for this purpose. Between 1900 and 1908, thousands 

 of grebes were slaughtered in the lake region of south- 

 ern Oregon, till the birds were almost exterminated. 

 The pursuit of these birds has continued until recent 

 times, and when the shooting and sale of these were 

 prohibited, birds were sought from other countries, 

 till now the importation of plumes for milliners' use 

 is prohibited by federal law. 



Terns were formerly slaughtered along the coast 

 of Long Island. One village alone supplied seventy 

 thousand bird-skins in four months to the New York 

 trade. Mr. Dutcher wrote: "On the coast of Long 

 Island, the slaughter has been carried on to such a 

 degree that, where, a few years since, thousands 

 and thousands of terns were gracefully sailing over 

 the surf-beaten shore and the wind-rippled bays, 

 now one is rarely to be seen." 



One dealer, during a three months' stay in North 

 Carolina, prepared eleven thousand bird-skins. He 

 handled about thirty thousand skins every year. 

 One milliner visited Cobb's Island, on the coast 



