FEBRUARY 39 



the " plume trade" are chiefly got by laying waste the 

 homes of birds that breed gregariously, and that at their 

 very breeding time. ... No havoc in these islands approaches 

 that which is perpetrated in some other countries, especially 

 it is surmised in India, though there now contrary to law ; 

 and the account of the ravages of a party of " bird-plumers " 

 at the breeding stations on the coast of Florida, given by 

 Mr. W. E. D. Scott, who in former years had seen them 

 thronged by a peaceful population, is simply sickening. 

 Did we not know what his feelings were, one might in 

 reading his terrible narrative lose patience with him for 

 not expressing more strongly his detestation of the bar- 

 barities he recounts. But his abstention is doubtless 

 attributable to the fact that his narrative appears in a 

 strictly scientific journal, where sentimental expressions 

 would be out of place. All efforts to awaken the conscience 

 of those who tacitly encourage this detestable devastation, 

 and thereby share in its guilt, have hitherto failed, and, 

 unless laws to stop it be not only passed but enforced, it 

 will go on till it ceases for want of victims, which indeed 

 may happen very shortly. Then milliners will doubtless 

 find that artificial feathers can be made even as artificial 

 flowers now are, and there will be a fine opening for the 

 ingenious inventor. The pity is that he does not begin at 

 once.' 



Now the excuse for making such a lengthy extract 

 as the above is found in the fact that it also is taken 

 from a strictly scientific work. The evil must indeed 

 be crying that wrings from the learned professor such 

 strong expressions of displeasure. 



Of course, when unsanctified man presumes to make 

 observations upon ladies' dress, he must be prepared 

 for the consequences. He will be told that he knows 



