Protection of North American Birds. 16 7 



mies birds have, and to whose egg-collecting and bird-stuf- 

 fing propensities was principally attributed the woful 

 decrease of our .song-birds ! 



" In England the same rage for hat decoration with dead 

 birds has gone so far that anti-plumage-wearing societies 

 have already been established by the more intelligent 

 women of that country; and it has already been suggested, 

 apparently independently of any similar action abroad, by 

 ladies themselves, that the women of this country throw 

 their influence in a similar way against the barbarous cus- 

 tom of using birds for personal decorations. Much could 

 doubtless be done in behalf of the birds in this way ; for, 

 once let it come to be considered vulgar and in ' bad form ' 

 to thus decorate one's person, and the power of fashion 

 would be a mighty weapon in defence of the birds. 



" Of all the means that may be devised for checking the 

 present wholesale bird-slaughter, the awakening of a proper 

 public sentiment cannot fail of being the most powerful. 

 Without this, all other means would prove, to a great de- 

 gree, ineffectual. Laws, however good, cannot be enforced 

 unless backed by public opinion. To arouse this, it seems 

 only necessary to enlighten the community respecting -the 

 nature, the enormity, and the leading cause of this great 

 evil." 



It is with this object that the Union appeals to us as work- 

 ers in Natural History- — and asks for sympathy, encourage- 

 ment and support ; and to aid them to .prevent the birds 

 being exterminated by thoughtlessness, they ask us to en- 

 dorse their work and to help them in drawing public atten- 

 tion to it, and thus to create a public sentiment in favor of 

 the movement. Already in the larger cities of the United 

 States, in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Buffalo, and 

 indeed all over the State*, the movement is gaining rapidly, 

 and people of all classes are becoming interested in it, and 

 assisting to advance it. 



Already the Natural History Society of Toronto have 

 takenup the subject energetically and at their last meeting, 

 it was moved by Mr. J. H. Pearce, and seconded by Dr. 

 Brodie, the President, and carried : — 



