the Value ojBivds to Man. 117 



hunters^ and agents of the millinery interest smote them 

 by the million. It is on record that hundreds o£ tons of 

 these birds were killed merely for their green wing-feathers, 

 and the bodies thrown away. 



What the present-day slaughter of birds in the primitive 

 places of the earth will mean to the pioneer of the future 

 is foreshadowed by what is happening in Hudson Bay at 

 the present time on account of the blind and wanton 

 destruction of the Duck in North America in days gone by. 



Ducks are now becoming so scarce along the west coast 

 of Hudson Bay, where there are no moose, caribou are few, 

 and the fishing is poor, that the people living there, who 

 have always depended largely on the Ducks they could pack 

 away in the autumn, find it difficult to get food enough to 

 carry them through the winter. 



I have not touched upon the aesthetic side of the question 

 of the value of birds to man, since that is a boundless 

 realm, sacred to sentiment, art, and poetry — a realm of which 

 it would be impossible for me to treat this evening. Even 

 as it is — and I am leaving unmentioned many a benefit 

 that birds confer on man — I have already put too great a 

 strain on your patience. 



I have come to my last words upon my subject. Birds, 

 unquestionably, are one of man's greatest possessions ; yet 

 it is just the possession on which he sets the least value. 

 Wherever there are birds whose feathers are suitable to 

 millinery, there will the plume-hunter be found, dealing 

 death and destruction. Wherever there are species that 

 have been harried by man to the verge of extinction, there 

 will be the collector also, anxious to obtain the last linger- 

 ing representative of a race before his rival gets a chance 

 to do so. Wherever there are birds whose eggs are valuable, 

 there the egg-collector hurries, to destroy not only the 

 embryo life, but often the mature life as well by killing 

 the bird that laid the egg for the purpose of identification. 

 Wherever there are birds that are considered " game,*' there 

 hastens that vandal of creation, tliu •' s^jortsnian '' ol means 



