Suggestions for the Coming Year 309 



Aigrettes. — The sale of these plumes still continues to such an extent 

 that the White Herons seem doomed to extinction. This beautiful feather 

 is the one that fashion and its votaries will not give up. Almost every show- 

 window displays some, although, to their credit be it said, there are wholesale 

 and retail milliners who will not sell them. The New York Audubon So- 

 ciety had a bill introduced in the Legislature at its last session to prohibit the 

 sale of Aigrettes, irrespective of where they were obtained. This was done 

 primarily to test the constitutionality of such a law. The bill passed the 

 Senate, but, prior to its consideration by the Assembly, a suit was started in 

 New York State against a dealer for the sale of foreign game, during the 

 closed season. This case will settle finally the constitutionality of the New 

 York law which prohibits the sale, during the closed season, of foreign game. 

 If this law is pronounced constitutional it will also apply to, and will, by a 

 slight amendment to the present plumage law, prevent the sale of imported 

 Aigrettes. If such sale cannot be prevented, there is no hope of saving the 

 few remaining American White Herons, for there are, and always vv\\\ be, 

 some women to whom no appeal is efi^ective. 



Sale of Game. — The prohibition of sale of foreign game during the closed 

 season is important, but the non-sale of all game at all times is of greater im- 

 portance. There is no other method that will stop the gradual extermination 

 of the game-birds of the country. This result will not occur in the lifetime 

 of the present adult membership of this Association, but it will surely come to 

 pass if sale is not prevented and cold storage is not forbidden by law. Some of 

 the game-birds of this country are now dangerously near the fatal line, and all 

 legitimate means should be taken to save the remnant for posterity. Stopping 

 sale may seem to many to be a radical move to make, but to those who have 

 given the subject thoughtful consideration there seems to be no other course 

 to take. We do not advocate a perpetual closed season for game, but we do 

 urge a short season only in the fall of the year. This will necessitate a uni- 

 form law throughout North America to abolish all spring shooting. 



Spring Shooting. — Killing game-birds of any species after January i, and 

 until the young of the year are able to care for themselves, is indefensible 

 from any point of view. IVIany of the states have taken very advanced 

 positions in this highly important matter, but other commonwealths still 

 permit this most pernicious and wasteful practice. It is the duty of this 

 Association to agitate persistently this subject and, so far as it has influence, 

 to exert it in behalf of the total abolition of the killing of birds in the spring 

 of the year. 



In concluding, permit me to quote from Bishop Brooks : "If you do your 

 work with complete faithfulness and with the most absolute perfectness with 

 which it is capable of being done, you are making just as genuine a contri- 

 bution to the substance of the universal good as is the most brilliant worker 



