2o6 



The Audubon Societies 



returned through the densest fogs, bear- 

 ing food to their young. 



Suddenly, as a result of causes too 

 mysterious for the mind of man to com- 

 prehend, Fashion claimed the Terns for 

 her own. 



Up and down the coast word went 

 forth, that Sea Swallows, or ' Summer 

 Gulls,' were worth ten cents each, and 

 the milliner's agent was there to con- 

 firm the report. 



It was in June when the baymen were 

 idle and, unrestrained by law, they 

 hastened to the beaches in keen compe- 



succumbed had not bird-lovers raised a 

 sum to pay keepers to protect them. 



Then Fashion, as if content with the 

 destruction she had wrought, found fresh 

 victims, and the Terns, for a time, es- 

 caped persecution. Now, however, the 

 demand for them has been revived, and 

 again the milliners' agent is abroad plac- 

 ing a price on the comparatively few 

 birds remaining. Before me is a circu- 

 lar issued by a New York feather dealer, 

 asking for "large quantities" of "Sea 

 Gulls, Wilson's Turns (sic). Laughing 

 Gulls, Royal Gulls," etc., and this is 



y F. M. Chapman 



WILSON S TERN ON NEST 



tition to destroy the birds which were 

 nesting there 



Never, in this country, at least, has 

 there been such a slaughter of birds. A 

 Cobb's Island, Virginia, bayman, whose 

 conscience, even at this late date, urged 

 him to a confession of shame for his 

 part in the proceedings, told me recently 

 that in a single day of that memorable 

 season, 1,400 Terns were killed on Cobb's 

 Island alone, and 40,000 are said to have 

 been there shot during the summer. The 

 destruction at other favorable places was 

 proportionately great. 



Two seasons of this work were suffi- 

 cient to sweep the Terns from all their 

 more accessible resorts, the only sur- 

 vivors being residents of a few uninhab- 

 ited islands. Even here they would have 



only one instance among hundreds. In 

 fact, the feather merchants themselves 

 state that the demand for Terns and 

 Gulls exceeds the supply.* 



What will be the result ? Is there no 

 appeal from Fashion's decree ? Woman 

 alone can answer these questions, and 

 the case is so clear she cannot shirk the 

 responsibility of replying. 



Aigrettes are decorative, quills difficult 

 to identify, neither bespeak death, and 

 ignorance may lead the most humane 

 woman into wearing either. But with 

 the Tern no such excuse exists, and the 

 woman who places its always disgust- 

 ingly mutilated body on her bonnet, does 

 so in deliberate defiance of the laws of 

 humanity and good taste. 



Fr.\nk M. Ch.\pman. 



*See also note from ' Brooklyn Eag e ' oi\ page 198. 



