54 Bird - Lore 



farmers, who were intensely prejudiced against Hawks and Owls, and 

 indifferent to the services rendered by these and many other useful species 

 which they were accustomed to regard as enemies and pests. The informa- 

 tion the Committee had gathered respecting the food of birds of prey showed 

 conclusively that, with two or three exceptions, these species were far 

 more beneficial than harmful, many of them subsisting chiefly on field 

 mice and other farm pests. In this connection quite an extended account 

 was given of the very excellent work of the Audubon Society." 



Decline of the First Audubon Movement. — During 1888 the tide of 

 bird protection was rapidly ebbing, for the subject seemed to be given 

 little attention in the public press. ' Forest and Stream ' pointed to the 

 fact that large numbers of song birds were shot during the spring migration 

 in the vicinity of New York, notwithstanding the law forbidding shooting 

 of such birds and, in an editorial in November, said as follows: "Essays 

 have been written to demonstrate the foolishness of small bird destruction, 

 laws have been passed to protect the useful species, societies have been 

 organized and tens of thousands of members enrolled pledged against the 

 fatuous fashion of wearing bird skins as dress; arguments, pleas, appeals 

 to reason and appeals to sentiment have been urged; and what is the 

 outcome of it all? Fashion decrees feathers; and feathers it is. The 

 headgear of women is made up in as large a degree as ever before of 

 the various parts of small birds. Thousands and millions of birds are 

 displayed in every conceivable shape on the hats and bonnets. This 

 condition of affairs must be something of a shock to the leaders of the 

 Audubon Society, who were sanguine enough to believe that the moral 

 idea represented by their movement would be efficacious to influence 

 society at large. Meantime the reintroduction of feather millinery in 

 no way derogates from the value of the work done by the Audubon 

 Society. It has called attention to the ethical and economic aspects of 

 the question and has educated a very respectable minority to organized 

 action. In the face of this minority thoroughly convinced that indulgence 

 in feather millinery is wrong in itself, or conducive to consequences 

 inimical to human well-being, the arbiters of fashion cannot achieve that 

 complete success they have been accustomed to look for." With the 

 end of the second volume, December, 1888, the Audubon Magazine 

 ceased to exist and, with it, organized effort for bird protection. 



At the sixth annual meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union 

 a very brief statement of the work of the Protection Committee was made 

 by Dr. J. A. Allen, in the absence of the chairman, Mr. Sennett. "Efforts 

 were being made to influence legislation and the Committee was trying 

 to enlighten the public." 



During 1889 the subject received no attention from the press, and 

 at the Seventh Congress of the A. O. U., held November 12-15, Mr, 



