170 



Bird- Lore 



and retail, warning it against the buying 

 and selling of birds for millinery purposes. 

 The circular has been widely copied by the 

 press of the country, and no doubt will 

 have some influence upon the timid ones of 

 the trade. The circular reads: 



"'Gentlemen: The Illinois Audubon 

 Society for the protection of birds desire to 

 call your attention to the following extract 

 from the Illinois Game Law, which has been 

 in force in this state since April, 1899: 



"'Section 3. Any person who shall 

 within the state kill or catch or have in his 

 or her possession, living or dead, any wild 

 bird, other than a game bird, English 

 Sparrow, Crow, Crow Blackbird, or 

 Chicken Hawk, or who shall purchase, 

 offer or expose for sale any such wild bird 

 after it has been killed or caught, shall, for 

 each offense, be subject to a fine of five dol- 

 lars for each bird killed or caught or had in 

 possession, living or dead, or imprisonment 

 for ten days, or both, at the discretion 

 of the court. 



" ' Public sentiment, as evidenced by the 

 action of both state and national govern- 

 ments, no longer warrants the use of wild 

 birds for millinery purposes, many states 

 besides Illinois no longer permitting their 

 sale. Birds are an absolute necessity to 

 man as consumers of insects and weed seeds, 

 and as scavengers along their shores. 



' ' 'The Illinois Audubon Society urgesyou 

 to comply with the law of the state, because 

 it hopes that you will place yourself on the 

 side of those who protect birds rather than 

 of those who destroy them, and also failure 

 to comply with the law must lay those who 

 violate it open to prosecution. 



" ' In purchasing your fall stock, we hope 

 most earnestly that you will take these facts 

 into consideration.' 



"The above circular applies to the wild 

 birds of the state or those of any other 

 state, sold within the state of Illinois. 

 The law was ostensibly passed to protect 

 game birds, and to prevent the killing 

 of game birds out of season. Various 

 amendments make the law apply to any wild 

 bird, whether it be water fowl, song bird or 

 insectivorous bird. The members of the 

 Millinery Merchants' Protective Associa- 

 tion are in accord with the law as it reads, 

 and will not handle North American birds 

 or foreign birds of the same species, but the 

 association claims that no state can legislate 

 for the protection of birds of foreign countries 

 not of the same species as the birds of 

 America. There are myriads of birds that 

 are pests in other countries, 'which said 

 countries are glad to be rid of, that are not 

 under the ban, which will be imported and 



which will be passed by the custom in- 

 spectors, and on which a duty will be paid. 

 As long as the United States Government 

 collects the duty on such importations it will 

 be construed as a license to sell such mer- 

 chandise, and it will be sold until the courts 

 decree otherwise. 



"The press of the whole country has a 

 mistaken idea regarding bird plumage. It 

 assumes that everything in the shape of a 

 feather that is used in millinery trimming is 

 embraced in the law from which the above 

 extract is taken, and which is similar to 

 other state laws passed for the protection of 

 birds and bird plumage. There are tons of 

 feather plumage used in the manufacture of 

 what the trade technically terms ' Fancy 

 Feathers,' much of which is the plumage 

 of game birds or plumage of barnyard fowl. 



" Fashion has already decreed that bird 

 plumage will obtain as an article of milli- 

 nery ornamentation to a great extent this 

 coming fall and winter; and, notwithstand- 

 ing the efforts of the extremists of the 

 Audubonsto prevent its sale, much of it will 

 be used. The Millinery Merchants' Pro- 

 tective Association wi'l aid every laudable 

 effort to prevent the killing of native song 

 birds, but it will brook no interference with 

 the manufacture and sale of made birds or 

 fancy feathers made from the feathers of 

 barnyard fowl." 



Such sane and logical arguments as these 

 show that it is not merely the ignorant and 

 unreasonable that we have to combat. 



The ' Review ' is full of announcements 

 of the coming reign of feathers, for which, I 

 have said before, the law and the lady must 

 join hands to shorten. But if these two 

 continue to disagree, let us invoke the law 

 by all means, as it is constitutionally more 

 dependable. 



The manner in which the bird pro- 

 tectionists are referred to in editorial squibs 

 by these same journals is somewhat encourag- 

 ing, for people seldom take the trouble to 

 deride an object which in no wise troubles 

 them; for example: 



"' No intimidation ' should be the watch- 

 word of the millinery trade from land's end 

 to land's end when it comes in contact with 

 the extremists of the Audubon societies. It 

 was the Chicago branch of the Audubon 

 conclave that rejected the proposition of the 

 trade to import no birds of the same species 

 as the North American species, provided it, 

 the trade, would not be interfered with in 

 disposing of such stock that it had on hand. 

 The independent self-righteous spirit of the 



