186 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



tectors, both in societies and Parliament, are largely 

 backed by the economic issue, and many, who are influ- 

 enced purely by aesthetic stimuli, make use of the economic 

 argument ; for that they know will appeal when their own 

 desires fail to attract. The bird protector, however, 

 is fully alive to the value of the aesthetic argument in 

 certain circles, and gains much support from the sympathy 

 and purses of ladies and others who are mainly concerned 

 with " the poor, pretty little birds." From the purely 

 aesthetic side there is much to be said in favour of main- 

 taining all birds of bright plumage or pleasant voice, and 

 there is, perhaps, nothing else which will combat that 

 depraved commercial spirit which fosters the pseudo-love 

 of the beautiful in the head-gear of unthinking woman a 

 survival of barbarity. When it is a question of the plu- 

 mage trade, use the aesthetic argument for all it is worth. 



The third argument, which may be called for want of 

 a more descriptive title the Humanitarian argument, 

 appeals most strongly against the cruelty of destruction. 

 There is sound good sense in it, too, but it is often marred 

 by a strange lack of balance. Men and women who sicken 

 at the sight of pain in animals they admire will ruthlessly 

 inflict it upon those they class as vermin or merely con- 

 sider ugly. Here again, where there is cruelty in destruc- 

 tion, it is safe and right to use the humanitarian argument 

 for all that it is worth, but we must avoid faddism; the 

 massacre of the plume-bearing herons for the " ospreys " 

 of commerce entails the slow torture and starvation of 

 young birds as well as the cruel death of the parents, and 

 this gruesome fact has, when pointed out by reasonable 

 advocates, influenced many tender-hearted women to 

 deny themselves the ornaments they coveted. 



The last and least popular argument is the Scientific, or, 

 to put it in other words, the argument for scientific 

 reasons. It is, apart from economic arguments, most 



