The Audubon Societies 



129 



owing to the legislative attention given 

 bird protection, is the proposed agree- 

 ment between the Millinery Merchants' 

 Association and the various bird protec- 

 tive organizations, which was published 

 in the June issue of this magazine, the 

 Editor requesting that opinions regarding 

 the proposition be forwarded him for 

 transmission to the aforesaid associa- 

 tion. 



Owing to the fact of its being the vaca- 

 tion season, it has been impossible to hear 

 from all the Audubon Societies. The 

 New England Societies — New Hampshire, 

 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Con- 

 necticut, together with Wisconsin, stand 

 firmly together and against the proposed 

 agreement in toto : Connecticut and 

 Wisconsin having expressed their objec- 

 tions in detail through Mr. Willard G. 

 Van Name and Prof. E. A. Birge, of the 

 University of Wisconsin, respectively, 

 while Mr. William Brewster, the President 

 of the Massachusetts Society, a thorough 

 scientist and an influential member of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union, is also 

 wholly opposed to the measure. He 

 writes: "If any attempt is made to have 

 this agreement accepted by the American 

 Ornithologists' Union I shall use all the 

 influence I possess to defeat it. * * * 

 It does not seem to me to be so much a 

 question of expediency as of absolute right 

 and wrong. No such compromise is pos- 

 sible. " 



From a political, as well as an ethical 

 standpoint, it is difficult to believe that 

 two opinions can be held about this 

 matter, either by the American Orni- 

 thologists' Union, representing the strictly 

 scientfic, or the Audubon Societies, the 

 more secular but equally logical side of 

 bird protection. 



We should not criticise the milliners, 

 who, having a perfectly good right as 

 business men to protect their invested 

 capital in any way not in I'iolation of 

 the laze, seek to prevent the enactment 

 of laws prejudicial to their own interests, 

 by making an agreement to disarm those 

 by whose influence the law is most 

 surely, if slowly, drawing about their 



traffic. But should we not bring upon 

 ourselves and our work deserved reproach 

 if we became party to any such agree- 

 ment? Almost all reforms must necessarily 

 cause temporary inconvenience to some 

 one, but that objection cannot be held 

 against the bird-protective reform unless 

 the suppression of the barbarous trade 

 of the plume-hunter is objected to. The 

 millinery trade can find ample scope for 

 its capital and work for its employees in 

 handling ostrich plumes and the feathers 

 of numerous species of domesticated birds, 

 the supply of which is as easily regulated 

 as that of the barnyard fowl, and with 

 the use of which no one will interfere. 

 W'e are not seeking, as some suppose, to 

 break up a bread-winning industry. 



The case may be summed up as follows : 

 A certain number of importers, manufac- 

 turers and dealers in raw and fancy feathers 

 are wilhng to promise not to buy any more 

 feathers of North American birds. They 

 retain, however, the right to manufacture 

 and sell all the plumage of such birds now 

 on hand until such sale shall be stopped by 

 a law or laws, z^'hich shall be approved by 

 the A. O. U. and the Aitdid>o?i Societies 

 and also do Justice to the trade ! In re- 

 turn for this most curiously worded conces- 

 sion, the A. O U. and the Audubon Socie- 

 ties are asked to give a pledge to prevent 

 the enactment of the very laws that shall 

 terminate and fix the time when the per- 

 mission to sell the feathers of the North 

 American birds on hand shall end ! 



We are further asked to pledge ourselves 

 not to interfere with the manufacture or 

 selling of the plumage or skins of " edible 

 birds, game birds killed in their season, 

 and all birds which are not North Ameri- 

 can. " 



What birds are inedible ? What is a 

 North American bird ? Is a bird taken in 

 Brazil during its winter sojourn an Ameri- 

 can or a Brazilian bird ? Who is to settle 

 this matter of citizenship, who furnish the 

 birds with passports, who give them pro- 

 tective papers of citizenship that the plume 

 hunter shall respect ? 



It appears that there are some few peo- 

 ple (merely enough to furnish the usual ex- 



