^Esthetic and Moral Reasons 123 



a New York department store, and there he made 

 the acquaintance of the "chanticleer" bow, at 

 that moment, the "latest thing' 5 in women's 

 neck wear. It was made of fluted satin ribbon, 

 and would have been commonplace enough but 

 for the fact that in the center of it was the head 

 of an English skylark. And it was but one of 

 scores of similar bows exposed to the indifferent 

 gaze of thousands, some of whom stopped to buy 

 for money what no money on earth should be 

 permitted to buy. The writer is not a poet, but 

 a boyhood spent in England made him an ardent 

 lover of the skylark, and perhaps the reader can 

 guess what feelings possessed him when he saw 

 the mummied head of that modest little bard 

 on a tawdry bow in a department store. Per- 

 haps what he felt most keenly was the degra- 

 dation of the bird, and it filled him with such 

 indignation that he sought the manager of the 

 store and registered a vigorous protest. This 

 was followed by a written one to the proprietors 

 and by a letter which was printed in the New 

 York Times. But the National Association of 

 Audubon Societies, under the direction of Wil- 

 liam Dutcher was already at work on the case, and 

 it was but a short time before the sale of chanti- 

 cleer bows was stopped let us hope forever. 

 And American poets have held their own in 



