Vol. XVII 
1900 
Notes and News. 95 
of prosecution to his paid emissaries, particularly in Florida, where, 
-we are informed, the publication of the facts above given have aroused a 
sentiment that should result in materially checking his work in that State. 
An effort will also be made to secure a passage of a law by the incoming 
legislature of New York, which shall render it impossible for such work 
be carried on with safety in this State. 
lar nis disheartening to bird protectionists to find in the public press 
statements to the effect that few wild birds are now employed in millinery 
decorations, which are, it is claimed, made up principally from the plum- 
age of domesticated fowls and game birds killed as food. Even the 
aigrettes are said to be obtained without killing the birds, the plumes 
being either picked up from the ground after the birds have shed them, 
or obtained from egret-farms, just as ostrich plumes are obtained by 
ostrich farming. It is pretty safe to assume, though hard to prove, that 
such statements as these emanate from an interested source, and are put 
forth to dull the sense of the public to the real facts in the case. The 
‘general public’ is unable to discriminate in matters of ornithology, and 
to a large extent believes what it is intended it should believe by the 
interested authors of such misinformation. A survey of women’s head- 
gear, as the average woman appears in public, is a painful sight to the 
ornithologist, who at a glance can tell the source of these hat decorations, 
however mutilated and disguised, with reasonable certainty, and can 
realize to what an enormous extent our wild birds are still sacrificed for 
woman's defacement. Not only are Hawks and Owls, Terns and Gulls, 
Grebes and Herons, and other birds in nameless variety, but even the 
Brown Pelican and Turkey Buzzard are made to contribute to the bar- 
baric display. 
But worst of all is the fact that high-toned and respectable fashion 
journals will publish statements like that given below and fail not only to 
retract them when shown their erroneous and harmful character. As an 
example we call attention to the following: ‘* The tender-hearted women 
who have refused to wear egrets on their hats and bonnets, on account 
of the poor mother-birds, will be glad to learn that they are not killed 
for the purpose of obtaining these lovely ornaments. Asa matter of fact, 
the hunters, without powder or shot, go around (in South America or 
India) during the right season to the breeding or roosting grounds and 
collect the plumes which are cast by the male every year. 
‘¢ In Venezuela the natives are beginning to farm the birds, as they are 
easily domesticated ; and as the egrets grow again each year, the enter- 
prise should be very profitable. 
‘“‘Tt has long been considered a very cruel thing to wear an egret, as it 
was supposed that a mother-bird was killed to obtain it. We have heard 
harrowing descriptions of nests of young birds left unprotected while the 
mother-birds lay mangled on the ground—all for the adornment of 
heathen woman-kind. But now the most tencer-hearted lady (provided 
