BIRD PROTECTION 307 



given over to the cats — only game birds being 

 regarded of value for food. Fortunately these 

 destructive forays passed out of fashion long 

 ago, and, in consequence, birds and small animals 

 in that region, except perhaps in the case of 

 game birds, are now much more numerous than 

 formerly. 



For many years the feather hunter wrought 

 his merciless slaughter almost at will, and several 

 of the most beautiful varieties came dangerously 

 near to the point of extermination. The dainty 

 white Egret of Florida was reduced almost to the 

 vanishing point and even Sea Gulls, those familiar 

 figures of harbor and shore, were greatly dimin- 

 ished in number under the murderous gun of this 

 relentless destroyer. And all this because many 

 ladies of the land held the mistaken notion that 

 the feathers of a poor dead bird constitute a 

 necessary and becoming adjunct to the milliner's 

 art. Other varieties with attractive plumage 

 suffered great reduction in numbers, and but for 

 the timely intervention of kindly disposed law- 

 makers would have gone the way of the Wild 

 Pigeon, Great Auk, and Labrador Duck. 



Desultory attempts were made to correct this 

 condition but after several years it became evi- 

 dent that the great variety of laws enacted in 

 different states, and the entire absence of pro- 

 tective laws in a large group of states, made 

 necessary some uniform system, if migratory 

 birds in general were to be saved from extinction. 

 Accordingly, in 1913 a Federal law was enacted 

 forbidding the killing of insect-eating birds be- 

 cause of their value to agriculture, and of migra- 



