oe Report of Committee on Bird Protection. 53 
strong, especially among the rising generation, and the growing 
' feeling on all sides that it is vulgar and in bad taste to wear birds, 
will inevitably make the present fashion one of short duration. 
Notwithstanding this, however, efforts are being constantly made 
by dealers to obtain birds from various parts of this country, 
especially where it can be done without breaking the laws. 
Information has reached your Committee of large quantities of 
Grebe breasts collected in western America, and of offers which 
have been made to fishermen along the New England coast to 
enlist their services in collecting Terns. 
The recent demand for single quills has resulted in the slaughter 
of innumerable Hawks, Owls, Eagles, and Pelicans, and now the 
demand is largely supplied from the Turkey Vulture, one of the 
most useful and at the same time most disgusting birds that we 
have. 
Mr. Wm. Palmer of our Committee writes me that numbers of 
these birds are trapped not far from Washington, D. C. They 
are decoyed with the carcasses of dead animals, and caught in a 
barrel arranged in such a way that whén a Vulture alights on the 
side he is precipitated intoit. The quills are then pulled out and 
the bird allowed to run. In many cases so many feathers are 
taken that the bird is unable to fly and probably dies. 
These instances of collecting for the millinery trade in our 
own country serve to emphasize the need of more stringent laws 
for the protection of birds, and their strict enforcement. ‘This 
seems to be the only means of checking the millinery collectors. 
The old stories that plume hunters do not use guns but collect 
Egret plumes which have been cast off by the birds, and that in 
certain remote parts of the world Egrets are actuallv farmed(!) 
have been recently revived and published in journals where they 
have attracted widespread attention, and seriously hindered the 
work of the Audubon Societies. We need only say that there is 
no foundation for either statement. Any ornithologist who knows 
the habits of the Egret or any person who has visited their haunts 
will testify to the absurdity of these stories. 
During the past year your chairman has taken up another 
matter of great importance, the question of excessive collecting 
of birds, and more especially of eggs, for alleged scientific pur- 
poses. 
