DANGER OF AN EARLY IXTINCTION OF SONG BIRDS. 185 



to kill and skin our native birds. To msikd a living, 

 each of these persons must kill at least fifty per day, 

 allowing for the large number spoiled and unmerchant- 

 able. Not only this, but scores of bushwhackers on 

 "their own hook" desultorily prsue this calling as they 

 have time and opportunity, disposing of their spoils 

 on " the sJy." If you would se». the results, visit some 

 of tlie large establishments whert this kind of goods is 

 sold to smaller dealers, and inqiire as a purchaser. 

 Some of them handle hundreds of thousands in a 

 season. Then go the rounds of the retail fancy stores 

 and millinery shops in any large city In each may be 

 seen hundreds in stock. It is the sane in all country 

 villages. Who has not been disgusted ind saddened in 

 looking through the fancy shops at Nagara Falls, to 

 see the havoc that has been made with the songsters, 

 to give this display of bright feathers, mounted on 

 fans ungainly perched in cases, lying in hundreds on 

 shelves, and packed in boxes; tanagers, blue birds, 

 cedar birds, orioles, humming birds and goil finches, 

 more of these skeletons in this one village than can be 

 foitnd alive in two entire counties. Here, too, nen are 

 regularly employed to supply these establishmems. 



Attention need not be called to the individual u^es of 

 these decorations. You can see them on the ha;s of 

 rich and poor, old and young ; a whole bird on one, a 

 half dozen wings on another, beaks and breasts (sn. 

 others j hateful emblems of vanity and thoughtless 

 cruelty, most unbecoming to our fair women and sweet- 

 faced girls. 



