6o THE GLORY OF THE GARDEN 



matters not that the species has been often de- 

 scribed, its structures and habits well known, the 

 bird must pay with its life for the penalty of being 

 rare. 



Surely this is a burlesque on science, a travesty 

 on the subject of natural history. But even this 

 horrible wrong seems dwarfed when compared with 

 the destruction of the birds for millinery and 

 decorative purposes. 



If the facts connected with this traffic could 

 generally be made known, a thrill of indignation 

 would take possession of every right-minded person, 

 and the community, in wrath would demand that 

 this outrage must cease; but, unfortunately, the 

 killing is carried on surreptitiously, much of it in 

 out-of-the-way places. In America, those who 

 have investigated the subject know that thousands 

 of men and boys all over the country, are regularly 

 employed to kill and skin the native birds. 



Attention need not be called to the individual 

 uses of these decorations. They may be seen on the 

 hats of rich and poor, old and young: a whole bird 

 on one, a half-dozen wings on another; beaks and 

 breasts on others; hateful emblems of thoughtless 

 cruelty, most unbecoming to the women who wear 

 them. 



A few more years of such wanton warfare on the 

 birds and it almost seems that men will walk the 

 voiceless fields and woods where, instead of bright 

 wings amid the green foliage and artistic structures 

 filled with eggs and fluttering birds, only unsightly 

 nests of crawling worms will dangle from leafless 

 bush and tree. 



In place of the gay carol of the bird voices, only 



