304- THE SLAUGHTER OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 



Guinea, the eared pheasants of Manchuria, the white egrets 

 of Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, and China, the condor of the 

 Andes, the trogon, and the Old-World pheasants generally. 



The relentless activity of the hunters for the feather trade 

 of Europe may be counted upon eventually to exterminate 

 any species that the evil eye of Fashion once fixes upon as de- 

 sirable. The talk now being heard in Germany and in En- 

 gland regarding the "breeding" of plume birds for the feather 

 trade is extremely ridiculous. On a commercial basis such 

 breeding is wildly impossible, and no friend of birds should for 

 one moment be deceived by talk regarding it. The story of 

 the successful campaign waged in Congress in 1913 to pro- 

 hibit the importation of bird plumage has been told in an 

 earlier chapter of this volume. 



Unseen Foes of Wild Life. — Besides their other enemies, 

 our wild birds are preyed upon to a serious extent and des- 

 troved bv immense numbers of cats and dogs that are al- 

 lowed to hunt at will; by the sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper 

 hawk, two owl species, the pilot black-snake, red squirrel 

 and bird-shooting boys. Upon parents and teachers there de- 

 volves a solemn and imperative duty to teach rigorously to 

 all their children and their pupils their bounden duty to pro- 

 tect and preserve all harmless wild creatures, and especially birds. 

 Let there be no pastime slaughter of the innocents! 



