38 FOWLS OF THE AIR 



to imploring mercy for our fellow-creatures the 

 birds. 



There were times, happily now for ever past in this 

 country, when the Church profited by the ignorance 

 of the people. Mourning relatives believed that the 

 souls of their lost ones might be redeemed from pur- 

 gatory by the repetition of so many masses, paid for 

 by the dozen, and that the penalty for their own sins 

 might be liquidated by the purchase of indulgences. 

 The Church knows now that sound knowledge is one 

 of the most trustworthy handmaids of devotion. In 

 this matter, then, of mercy to birds, knowledge is the 

 surest remedy to the present practice ; for there can 

 be nothing more certain than this, that kind-hearted 

 Englishwomen would never consent to deck them- 

 selves with borrowed plumes if they knew the irre- 

 parable mischief that is being wrought by the traffic 

 which supplies them. Should any clergyman feel at 

 a loss for a text from which to preach on this subject, 

 let me respectfully refer him to Professor Newton's 

 admirable Dictionary of Birds; and therein, under 

 the heading ' Extermination,' the following words : 



' One other cause which threatens the existence of many 

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

 mination of some, is the rage for wearing their feathers that 

 now and again seizes civilised 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 



