9 



dear to the dealer, and one round which he has woven his most 

 ingenious inventions. Mr. Downham's main reply to the sicken- 

 ing accounts (the adjective is Professor Newton's) given by 

 naturalists, is that Florida is a sort of suburb, which is now being 

 " developed" ; that the Egrets have retreated just as foxes have 

 migrated from Hampstead Heath and partridges from Peckham ; 

 that there never were many ; that there still are many ; that 

 the feather-trade is not responsible for the decrease ; that the 

 birds were not shot at breeding-time (see pp. 22, 54, 56, 58, etc.). 



The stories of the "artificial" osprey and the "moulted" 

 plumes will also be considered later on (pp. 39, 41). 



Extermination. 



In 1893 Professor Newton's " Dictionary of Birds " was pub- 

 lished. Under the heading " Extermination," he again com- 

 mented on the plume-market. The way that this article is treated 

 in " The Feather Trade "is an example of the methods 

 employed for the defence. Professor Newton showed that 

 civilization and agriculture naturally result in the clearance of 

 land and consequent reduction in the number of wild creatures 

 that had their homes and obtained their food in marsh or forest. 

 This part of the argument is approved by the trade, who, 

 as already said, picture American States and South American 

 countries as similar regions to Hampstead or Tooting. Man has 

 come ; birds must " migrate." But Professor Newton adds : 



" One other cause which threatens the existence of many 

 species of birds, if it has not already produced the extermina- 

 tion of some, is the rage for wearing their feathers that now 

 and again seizes civilized women, who take their ideas of 

 dress from interested milliners of both sexes persons who, 

 having bought a large stock of what are known as * plumes/ 

 proceed to make a profit by declaring them to be in fashion. 

 The tender-hearted ladies who buy them little suspect that 

 some of the large supplies required by the * plume-trade ' are 

 chiefly got by laying waste the homes of birds that breed 



gregariously, and that at their very breeding-time 



All efforts to awaken the conscience of those who tacitly 

 encourage this detestable devastation, and thereby share in 



