FEBRUARY 43 



battered to death by a labouring man, and sold to a 

 neighbouring bird stuffer. That is only what we must 

 expect from labouring men as long as people who are 

 not under the necessity of labouring remain ignorantly 

 indifferent. Surely ignorance is the only cause of this 

 indifference. Surely no lady would buy one of these 

 egret plumes, dyed, as they often are, red, blue, or even 

 black, if she remembered that they were once the 

 bridal dress of an innocent bird; that in order to 

 supply them, peaceful colonies must be invaded and 

 ruthlessly violated at the most sacred season of the 

 year ; and that this heartless trade must soon end in 

 the total extermination of white herons. 



To what purpose, some hard-working philanthropist 

 may be heard saying, is all this outcry about the suffer- 

 ings of birds, when such clamant need exists for the 

 relief of human want and misery ? Will it not be time 

 enough to take up the cause of the first when that of 

 the last has been finally and successfully redressed ? 

 That might be so if man were neutral in his dealings 

 with these wild things ; if, instead of exerting himself 

 to destroy and torment them, he left them undisturbed. 

 This is no appeal for mission work among fowls, but 

 for the conversion of human beings from inhuman 

 practices. The Society for the Protection of Birds was 

 originally started for the purpose of discouraging the 

 'plume' trade, by informing women about its true 

 nature ; it has lately extended its scope so as to grapple 

 with needless and wanton destruction of birds. It does 

 not clamour for legislation; there is plenty of that 



