CHAPTER VIII 



THE TRAFFIC IN FEATHERS 



THE traffic in the feathers of American birds 

 for the millinery trade began to develop 

 strongly about 1880 and assumed its great- 

 est proportions during the next ten years. The 

 wholesale milliners whose business and pleasure it 

 was to supply these ornaments for women's hats nat- 

 urally turned for their supply first to those species of 

 birds most easily procured. Agents were soon going 

 about the country looking for men to kill birds for 

 their feathers, and circulars and hand bills offering 

 attractive prices for feathers of various kinds were 

 mailed broadcast. The first great onslaughts were 

 made on the breeding colonies of sea birds along the 

 Atlantic Coast. On Long Island there were some 

 very large communities of Terns and these were 

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