Editorials 



31 



the nature-study courses in our schools, 

 special attention will be paid to the 

 pedagogics of ornithology, while the later 

 numbers will be more largely devoted to 

 the recountal of experiences afield. 



Senator Hoar has again introduced 

 into the United States Senate a bill 

 designed to control the traffic in feathers 

 for millinery purposes. It differs from 

 the bill introduced by him last year 

 only in excepting from its provisions 

 birds which are used for food. 



'The Millinery Trade Review,' in 

 commenting on this bill, says: "The 

 task of crushing such a measure will be 

 made more difficult than at the last 

 session, but crushed it must be, and every 

 man or woman connected with the mil- 

 linery trade must lend his or her aid in 

 connection with that of the Millinery 

 Merchants' Protective Association, whether 

 capital is invested in the business or 

 one is a wage-earner. His or her living 

 in the seasons to come depends upon the 

 rise or fall of this most iniquitous and 

 childish measure." 



It is this final statement on which the 

 specious pleas of the milliners are usu- 

 aly based, whereas, as a matter of fact, 

 no one thing would more greatly benefit 

 the milliners' trade, as a whole, than 

 the total abolition of feathers — many of 

 which are worn exactly as taken from 

 the bird — and their consequent replace- 

 ment by various artificial ornaments, 

 the manufacture of which would give 

 employment to a much larger number 

 of persons than are at present engaged 

 in the millinery trade. 



In 'Harpers' Bazaar' for November 18, 

 1899, there appeared an editorial para- 

 graph to the effect that as Herons are 

 no longer killed for their plumes, which 

 are now gathered from the ground and 

 plucked from captive birds there was 

 no longer any reason why these feath- 

 ers should not be worn by the most 

 humane-minded woman. 



Inquiry developed the fact that this 

 paragraph was written by Mrs. Isabel 

 Strong and was based on information 



furnished her by Mrs. Robert Louis 

 Stevenson, who in turn had received it 

 from a missionary to India. 



Requests for a correction of this er- 

 roneous and misleading article resulted 

 in an admission from the editor of the 

 magazine in question that " unquestion- 

 ably ... a comparatively small propor- 

 tion of those egrets used are found upon 

 the ground." Nevertheless, he has made 

 no further reference in his pages to 

 Mrs. Strong's paragraph, which led the 

 reader to believe that all the plumes 

 used were either picked up from the 

 ground or plucked from birds captive 

 in so-called ' Egret farms. ' Concerning 

 these ' farms ' the editor of the ' Bazaar' 

 is silent, and in every case where inves- 

 tigation has been possible the 'farm' 

 has proved to be a myth. One was 

 described in great detail by a newspa- 

 per correspondent, who made the mis- 

 take of locating it in Yuma, Arizona, 

 the home of Mr. Herbert Brown, a 

 well-known ornithologist and member of 

 Bird-Lore's Advisory Council. Inquiry 

 of Mr. Brown develops the amusing 

 fact that the ' farm ' consists of one lit- 

 tle white Egret kept as a pet at the 

 Southern Pacific Hotel. 



Admitting the possibility of picking 

 plumes from the ground, it is absurd to 

 suppose that the plume hunters would 

 adopt this method to the exclusion of 

 shooting, when one well-directed shot 

 would yield more and better plumes 

 than they might find in a week's search. 



Assemblyman Hallock has introduced 

 a bird-protection bill in the New York leg- 

 islature, which differs from the existing 

 law in making the possesion of a bird's 

 plumage as actionable an offense as pos- 

 session of the bird itself. Under the pres- 

 ent law it has been found impossible to 

 convict millinery taxidermists having in 

 stock the freshly made skins of native 

 birds, but the amendment proposed, by 

 making the old law active, will permit of 

 the conviction of these, the worst offend- 

 ers against it. We, therefore, urge our 

 readers to use all possible influence in 

 securing the passage of Mr. Hallock's bill. 



