SEA FOWL. 231 



London auction room 6228 birds of paradise, 4974 Impeyan 

 pheasants, 770 Argus (Monal), 404,464 West Indian and 

 Brazil birds, 356,389 East Indian birds, besides kingfishers, 

 parrots, bronze doves, fruit-eating pigeons, jays, rollers, 

 regent birds, tanagers, creepers, chats, black partridges, 

 golden orioles, pheasants, etc. ; and various odds and ends such 

 as ducks' heads, toucans' breasts, and sundry nests. "Wanted, 

 1000 dozen seagulls " (Advertisement, Cork Constitution). 

 "Wanted, 10,000 pairs jays', starlings', and other wings." 

 From America, we get the following. A Broadway dealer 

 says, " We buy from 500,000 to 1,000,000 small American 

 birds every year. Native birds are very cheap." Concern- 

 ing terns, Mr. Butcher says, " 3000 were killed at Seaford, 

 L.I., and 40,000 at Cape Cod in one season." One taxider- 

 mist prepares 30,000 skins for hats and bonnets every 

 season. Maryland sent 50,000 birds, many being Baltimore 

 orioles, to Paris in a single season ; a New York taxider- 

 mist contracts for 300 skins a day, for his trade with France ; 

 Ohio Valley, 5000 skins. We might add pages of such facts. 

 It is rather the fashion in England to say that these American 

 figures are of no interest. But most of the birds are killed 

 in America in a great measure for export to England, and 

 thus the destruction of bird life is kept up by English 

 women. Existence, to the Baltimore oriole and our robin 

 redbreast, is equally enjoyable, Why cut it short ? A bird- 

 skin stuffed, wired, and supplied with eyes, lasts for a few 

 weeks and is then throw aside as "out of fashion." 



Do not injure the cause of the preservation of birds, 

 Mr. George Musgrave advises, "by trying to prove too much, 

 and in some instances appearing to value the lives of dumb 

 animals above those of men and their families who produce 

 or obtain food for the community." Sea birds have their 

 faults. The skua bullies the gull, and the gull behaves 

 infamously to the guillemot. The puffins evict the rabbit, 

 and thus deprive human beings of food and a source of 

 income. The mariner who trusts to sea birds in a fog or 



