The Common-sense of Bird, Protection.



35



whole skin of a bird with the wings and tail dyed some ugly

unnatural colour, these being intended to adorn the hats of

ladies. In a West-End shop the present writer recently noticed

several skins of Barn Owls and Niglit-jars, some of which had

the wings and tails dyed a brilliant sea-green, while in others

these parts were some other equally incongruous colour. Game-

keepers are always ready enough to slay Owls, but if they know

that there is a certain commercial value in their skins, an extra

inducement towards the massacre of these innocent and most

useful creatures will be prseented to them.


The obtaining of the plumes of the Egrets, which are

known as “ospreys,” is invariably accompanied by the utmost

cruelty and dastardly waste of life. The various species of

plume-bearing Herons or Egrets only develop the graceful

plumes which adorn the hats and bonnets of thirty per cent, of

European ladies, during the breeding season. They nest in

colonies which the plume-hunters invade when the j^oung birds

are hatched, for they know that the birds, though temporarily

frightened away by their rifles, will quickly return to their help¬

less young. Thus the butchery is carried on until the whole

colony is wiped out of existence, with the exception of scores, or

hundreds of helpless young whose piteous voices are only hushed

by death from starvation.


If bird protectionists can do anything to stop this cruel

and barbarous plume trade they will richly deserve the thanks of

every lover of the beautiful in nature, for besides the Egrets, the

wonderful Birds of Paradise and many others are being ruth¬

lessly exterminated in order to appease the greed of fashion,

the survival of a barbarous age.


But, as we have said, some of those who are most energetic

in championing the cause of bird protection are inclined to go

too far, with the result that they do more harm than good. From

the United States we learn that the Audubon Societies have so

brought their influence to bear upon the Government that laws

have been passed practically prohibiting private individuals

from practising aviculture, a course which can only be described

as short-sighted policy to say the least of it. Enough has been

published in this journal alone to demonstrate the great value of



