In Wildest Africa ^ 



starve to death before enough of these little plumes has 

 been collected to make a load heavy enough to be put on 

 the bearers' shoulders. And now the dealers of the whole 

 civilised world lay in a stock, so that full provision may 

 be made for a form of fashion-mania that may probably 

 last only a few months. Even in the farthest swamps of 

 America, in the lands beyond the Caspian, and wherever 

 the royal heron breeds, one can follow the bird hunter, and 

 see him at his horrible and murderous work. The end 

 is everlasting silence. A rare species is soon utterly 

 destroyed. In the last century alone about two dozen 

 species of birds became extinct. And in these days nearly 

 a dozen more species of birds are threatened with extinc- 

 tion ! According to the Reports of the Smithsonian 

 Institute this is notably the case in America with regard 

 to quite as many species. The wonderful birds of paradise 

 are going ; the latest '' trimming " for the hats of American 

 ladies, these dwellers in remote islands of the Southern 

 Seas are to be threatened in a more serious degree, and 

 probably to a great extent exterminated. Everywhere 

 we have the same lamentable facts ! It is certainly high 

 time to interfere effectively. I myself think that the best 

 results would follow from an appeal to all noble-minded 

 women. 



In Africa I have already observed an example of the 

 disappearance of one species of bird ^ — every European 

 takes a lot of trouble to get possession of some of the 



^ The author beheves that he cannot better give expression to his 

 views as to the preservation of the beauties of nature, than by reproducing 

 an article on the appearance of the stork in the Soldin district, by Herr 



ii8 



