228 EXTERMINA TION 



the extraordinary sentiment that has led them to introduce from 

 other countries birds which, in the absence of their natural checks, 

 will be nothing else than a positive nuisance ; for so reckless is 

 the manner in which they have been imported, that sj^ecies 

 possessing few or exceedingly doubtful recommendations to begin 

 "vvith have been carried over in abundance, and some of these 

 cannot fail to become permanent settlers equally with those for the 

 transportation of Avhich the would-be " acclimatizers " might find 

 themselves excused. All, however, in the battle of life will 

 contribute first to the subdual and by degrees to the disappearance 

 of the original inhabitants, which had hitherto constituted a Fauna, 

 from a scientific point of vieAv, perhaps the most interesting on the 

 face of the globe. 



One other cause which threatens the existence of many species 

 of birds, if it has not already produced the extermination of some, 

 is the rage for wearing their feathers that now and again seizes 

 civilized women who take their ideas of dress from interested 

 milliners of both sexes — persons who, having bought a large stock 

 of what are known as "plumes," proceed to make a profit by 

 declaring them to be "in fashion." The tender-hearted ladies who 

 buy them little suspect that some of the large supplies required 

 by the " plume-trade " are chiefly got by laying Avaste the homes 

 of birds that breed in society, and that at their very breeding- 

 time. The slaughter which formerly took place at many of the 

 chief resorts of sea-birds on the British coasts was fortunately 

 checked by Act of Parliament in 1869 ; but the infamous practice 

 is still to some extent surreptitiously followed in secluded places 

 (and they are not so few in number) where it can be pursued with 

 impunity. However, no havoc in these islands approaches that 

 which is perpetrated in some other countries, especially, it is surmised, 

 in India — though there now contrary to law ; and the account of 

 the ravages of a party of " bird-plumers " at the breeding-stations on 

 the coast of Florida, given by Mr. W. E. D. Scott,^ who in former 

 years had seen them thronged by a peaceful population, is simply 

 sickening. All efforts to awaken the conscience of those who 

 tacitly encourage this detestable devastation, and thereby share in 

 its guilt, have hitherto failed, and unless laws to stop it be not 

 only passed but enforced it will go on till it ceases for want of 

 victims — Avhich indeed may happen very shortly. Then milliners 



1 Aiik, 1887, pp. 135-144, 213-222, 273-284; 1888, p. 128. This series of 

 papers is the more valuable because Mr. Scott records what he saw and learnt on 

 the spot in the calmest language. Did we not know what his feelings were, 

 one might, ' in reading his terrible narrative, lose patience with him for not 

 expressing more strongly his detestation of the barbarities he recounts. But 

 his abstention is doubtless attributable to the fact that his narrative appears in a 

 strictly scientific journal, where sentimental expressions would be out of place. 



