82 OUR NATIVE BIRDS 
societies, and the press must do their duty to dispel 
the darkness. The business of the plume hunter is a 
particularly disgusting one, because his favorite hunt- 
ing time is the breeding and nesting season of birds, 
when their plumage is at its best. A Florida plume 
hunter once told Mr. Frank M. Chapman that he had 
killed three hundred egrets in one afternoon. This 
meant that he had caused the death of about one 
thousand helpless nestlings by starvation. The only 
wrong these innocent creatures had ever committed 
was that their parents bore a beautiful, delicate plum- 
age which ignorant or vain women will buy regardless 
of the brutal slaughter by which it was obtained.! Does 
the word of the prophet “ Have we not all one father, 
hath not one God created us?” only apply to human 
kind with all its sinfulness, corruption, and depravity? 
Should it not apply to the birds and the beasts of the 
woods, many of which are far more faithful and useful 
workers in the vineyard of nature than some people 
who live in first-class hotels? 
Among the members of the Audubon society we 
notice a few divines and clergymen, but their number 
should be much larger. Is it not about time that our 
churches, too, preach and practice humaneness in its 
1 Send for a leaflet entitled: ‘‘The Wearing of Herons’ Plumes or 
Aigrettes,’? by Frank M. Chapman. Address Miss Emma H. Lock- 
wood, 243 West Seventy-fifth St., New York City, or Miss Mary A. 
Mellick, Plainfield, N. J. The pamphlet is sent free to applicants. 
All ladies and girls interested in birds and in humane work should 
read: ‘¢ The Audubon Societies and their Work,”’ by Frank M. Chap- 
man, the Delineator, March, 1898, 
