118 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 183 



face on meeting a man, is characteristic, as well 

 as the court dress and robe of the groom. 



Pedlers on the road (fig. 8). — Pedlers are com- 

 mon throughout Corea. In our sketch are repre- 

 sented the methods of carrying loads and children, 

 and the costume, hat, and shoes of the lower 

 classes. 



Each one of the paintings is as graphic and in- 

 structive as those presented. It is very ditficult 

 to impress upon the mind of ordinary travellers 

 that it is just the information conveyed in such 

 pictures that the anthropologists need. To write 

 the life-history of our practical arts, it is absolute- 

 ly necessary to understand the minutiae of in- 

 dustry in every stage. O. T. Mason. 



BIRD-DE8TR UCTION. 



In December, 1885, the American ornithologists' 

 union committee on bird - protection began its 

 work in behalf of the birds. After one or two 

 conferences the comniittee became convinced that 

 nothing would tend more to check the lamentable 

 wholesale slaughter of our birds for millinery and 

 other puri30ses than the proper enlightenment of 

 the pu.blic respecting the extent of the annual 

 sacrifice of bird-life, its causes, and its effects ; 

 that the almost universal use of birds for decora- 

 tive purposes was due to thoughtlessness, and to 

 ignorance of its baneful results ; that in order to 

 stem the tide of destruction it was simply neces- 

 sary to make known the facts in the case, and 

 thus create an intelhgent public sentiment in 

 favor of the birds. Accordingly the committee 

 prepared a series of articles on the subject, which 

 was published as a sixteen-page supplement to 

 Science, in the issue of Feb. 26, 1886. This sup- 

 plement was subsequently republished in jjam- 

 phlet form as ' Bulletin No. 1 ' of the committee, 

 and sent broadcast tlii-oughout the country. 



The result far exceeded the most sanguine hopes 

 of the committee : the press of the country took 

 up the subject vigorously, there being scarcely 

 a newspaper, magazine, or journal of any sort, 

 technical, literary, educational, religious, or scien- 

 tific, that did not publish copious extracts from 

 the Science supplement, usually with editorial 

 comment highly favorable to the movement thus 

 started. This was often followed by letters from 

 correspondents in further support of the cause, 

 while not a few of the leading newspapers became 

 earnest cliampions of the birds. At the same time 

 various societies of natural history, in Canada as 

 well as in the United States, appointed commit- 

 tees on the subject of bird-protection, which pre- 

 sented reports to their respective societies, em- 

 bodying further evidence regarding the extent of 



the destruction of birds for millinery and other 

 reprehensible purposes, frequently accompanied 

 by resolutions indorsing most fully the conclu- 

 sions and recommendations of the American or- 

 nithologists' union committee, and urging the 

 most energetic measures possible to check the 

 destruction of bird-life. 



The Audubon society was speedily organized 

 in New York City, under the auspices of the 

 Forest and stream newspaper, for the express pur- 

 pose of co-operating with the American ornithol- 

 ogists' union committee in its work of protecting 

 the birds. Branches of this society have sprung 

 up in various and widely distant parts of the 

 country, till the member&hip already exceeds ten 

 thousand. Anti-bird wearing leagues and juvenile 

 ' bands of mercy ' were formed in many towns 

 and cities throughout the land, having the same 

 objects in view, the members of which respec- 

 tively pledge themselves not to use birds for deco- 

 rative purposes, and not only not to destroy birds 

 or their nests or eggs, but to exercise all their 

 influence in checking their needless desti'uction. 



Until recently the only discordant notes heard 

 from any quarter were the subdued mutterings of 

 a few reprehensible taxidermists, caterers of the 

 milliners, whose pockets were affected by the 

 movement in favor of the birds. Many of the 

 dealers in birds for decorative piirposes, jDarticu- 

 larly for hat ornamentation, expressed themselves 

 as heartily in sympathy with the movement, as 

 have the better class of taxidermists, — those legit- 

 imately entitled to the name, who are often men 

 of scientific tastes, and too high-principled to lend 

 themselves to the indiscriminate slaughter of 

 birds simply for jjurposes of gain. 



It was left, therefore, for a single ornithologist 

 of some supposed standing as a man of sense and 

 culture to make the first and thus far the only 

 public protest against the movement, which he is 

 pleased to term ' sentimental bosh.' "Whatever his 

 object, — whether a freak of the moment, an 

 attempt to see what could be said on ' the other 

 side,' a strike for notoriety, or the result of per- 

 sonal pique, ^ — his statements were of a sufficiently 

 sensational character to be eagerly seized upon by 

 newspaper editors ignorant of or indifferent to the 

 facts in the case, or unscrupulous in regard to 

 what they put in their i3aj)ers, provided it is ' in- 

 teresting ' or ' startling ; ' and the ' address ' of the 

 ' learned doctor ' has consequently received more 

 or less attention ; and extracts from it, or edi- 

 torials based upon it, have been published in two 

 of the New York dailies, and possibly elsewhere, 

 in addition to the i^aper in which it originally 

 appeared. 



The person who has thus attained unenviable 



