BROODING EGRET— THE DORSAL TRAIN' OF NUPTIAL PLUMES ARE 



HANGING OVER THE TAIL FEATHERS 



Photographed by A. H. E. Mattingley 



THE HORRORS OF THE PLUME TRADE 



By WILLIAM BUTCHER 



tE^e iBattonal Si&sotiaiion ot Audubon Societies 



SPECIAL LEAFLET NO. 21 



Ignoring the economic value of wild birds, which alone should be a suf- 

 ficient reason for their preservation, there is another reason why none should be 

 killed for millinery ornaments. The horrors attending the collection of plumes 

 of Herons is beyond the powers of language to decribe, and can best be shown 

 pictorially. ^luch has been written on the subject in the past, and it seems 

 almost impossible that any woman who reads current bird literature or the 

 public press can fail to know the extreme cruelty attending the traffic in wild- 

 bird plumage. The American women who are still willing to wear the plumes 

 of the white Herons sometimes offer as an excuse that thev are not taken from 

 native Herons; but it is immaterial whether the birds were killed in America or 

 in some other part of the world. The same cruelty is practiced in the Eastern 

 Hemisphere as in the Western. The paltry f)rice in money that is paid for the 

 plumes is not to be compared to the price paid in blood and suffering. 



Women must remember: 



That White Herons wear the coveted plumes only during the breeding season. 



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