184 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



In consequence the decision was appealed in the 

 United States Court of Appeals at New Orleans, which 

 court ruled such disposition could be made of the birds 

 as was seen fit by the Secretary of the Treasury. 



After months of waiting, during which Miss Devine 

 carefully tended the plumage, airing them frequently 

 to keep out various insect pests, orders were received 

 from Washington to ship them to New York. 



Here the brilliantly-plumed birds will be taken in 

 charge by Dr. William T. Hornaday, Director of the 

 New York Zoological Society, writer on and champion 

 of wild life, zoologist and ornithologist of distinction, 

 whose eloquent petition, more than any one's else, saved 

 the birds from fiery destruction. 



He will make distribution of them to the various 

 museums of the country, where they will be on exhibi- 

 tion for educational purposes. 



And possibly, when coming generations will have 

 learned that these beautiful birds, labeled "Paradisia 

 apoda," commonly called "Greater Bird of Paradise," 

 were killed while courting the less conspicuous females, 

 and that as a result the species was almost extermin- 

 ated, they will have more regard for such few birds as 

 remain than to kill them to satisfy the relentless and 

 often cruel demands of fashion. 



