12 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
killed at Cape Cod alone in a single year for exporta- 
tion to the millinery establishments of Europe; that 
near Philadelphia one million rails and reed-birds (or 
“‘ bob-o-links ”) were killed in the same time for the 
same purpose; and that one New York merchant 
estimates his daily trade at three hundred skins in a 
favourable season. Humming-birds, those gems of 
the feathered race, are rapidly becoming extinct; 
paradise birds, already greatly lessened in numbers, 
are travelling the same path, although at a slower 
rate; and there is, in fact, scarcely a known bird 
which could by any possibility be utilised in this 
abominable trade that has not been persecuted to a 
serious extent. 
If yet further evidence be required, it may be 
found in an admirable article recently published by 
the Animal World, from which I quote the fol- 
lowing passages :— 
“The Cork Constitution recently advertised that 
12,000 sea-gulls were wanted; and it added, that 
‘clean birds are indispensable, as the feathers are 
required for the decoration of ladies’ attire.’ 
‘A well-known journal (Forest and Stream) men- 
tions a dealer who, during a trip to South Carolina 
last spring, prepared 11,018 bird-skins, and ‘the 
person referred to handles, on an average, 30,000 
skins per annum, of which the greater part are cut 
up for millinery purposes.’ 
‘*¢¢ An enterprising person,’ says the Swz (Balti- 
more), ‘has contracted with a Paris millinery firm 
to deliver, during the present summer, 40,000 bird- 
