23 



Terns. 



" Your President was greatly pleased to find a young 

 Tern just able to fly, near the shore of Great Island, N. Y. . . 

 Thousands of them used to breed in that locality up to the 

 year 1883-4, when they were mercilessly slaughtered for 

 millinery/' National Audubon Association Report, 1906. 



" The colony of Lesser Terns on Cobb's Island, Virginia, 

 has been thoroughly annihilated for millinery purposes. 

 Our guides told us of the immense numbers of these birds 

 that were slaughtered within the past few years ; the figures 

 were almost incredible. He and nearly all the gunners and 

 fishermen on the coast took a hand in the game and they 

 kept at it until the last one was gone, though at first the 

 supply seemed inexhaustible." Reports on Bird Colonies 

 in Virginia, by A. C. Bent, 1907. 



Tern and Albatross. 



As many as 18,000 of one species of Tern (catalogued as 

 " Dominoes ") were listed for a single sale in 1C08, and large 

 numbers continue to come in. Mr Bryan, United States Special 

 Inspector of Animals and Birds, reported to his Government in 

 1904, having been " appalled by the destruction of birds on the 

 North Pacific Islands," hundreds of thousands having been 

 killed by plume-hunters. On Marcus Island they " had wiped 

 out of existence one of the largest Albatross colonies in these 

 waters," and Midway Island was " covered with great heaps of 

 Albatross carcases, which a crew of poachers had left to rot on 

 the ground after the quill feathers had been pulled out of each 

 bird." The United States steamer Thetis, sent to stop illegal 

 plume-hunting on one of the Hawaian islets, found that the 

 hunters had already destroyed some 300,000 birds on this 

 breeding station. 



The Lyre-Bird. 



The Lyre-Bird of New South Wales is fast becoming extinct. 

 It is strictly protected by law ; but 80 tails were catalogued at 



