15 



SAVE THE BIRDS ! 



BY HENRIETTA F. GROUT. 



WHEN the equilibrium is destroyed between plant and insect life 

 by the destruction of insect eating and seed eating birds, man 

 suffers. One of the objects of the Audubon Society is to create a 

 sentiment against the slaughter and use of birds for decoration, and now 

 that the furor is at its height, the thousands of members throughout the 

 country should at least do some active work in creating a public senti- 

 ment against this cruel fad. It is to be confessed with shame that 

 woman's love of ornament has, in the last year, led to the destruction of 

 thousands of humming birds, bobolinks and red wing blackbirds. Texas 

 alone furnished 10,000 white egrets and one village in Long Island sent 

 70,000 bird skins to the New York market. The small state of Delaware 

 furnished 20,000 in two months. The total slaughter the past year 

 reached 500,000,000 birds in our own country, whose plumage was used 

 to decorate women's hats. 



Thoughtlessness and ignorance can no longer be used as excuses for 

 this barbarous fashion. So many appeals have been made to the head 

 and heart of women throughout our country, and many noble women 

 have pledged themselves to wear no bird plumage but ostrich feathers. 

 Let us women continue the crusade. Let the women say the word and 

 this useless sacrifice of bird life will cease and farmers will not need to 

 spend $400,000,000 annually in destroying insects, the birds will eat 

 their natural food, insects, grubs and weed seeds, and our eyes and ears 

 will be delighted with the beautiful forms and sweet songs of innumer- 

 able birds. 



