A PLEA FOR THE BJJRDS. 



1113 



bird-skins are sent abroad. The great European markets draw 

 their supplies from all over the. world. In London there were sold 

 in three months from one auction room 404,464: West Indian and 

 Brazilian bird-skins, and 356,389 East Indian birds. In Paris 100,- 

 000 African birds have been sold by one dealer in one year. One 

 New York firm recently had a contract to supply 40,000 skins .of 

 American birds to one Paris firm." 



These are startling figures, and should arrest the attention of 

 those of the fairer sex who encourage, by wearing the feathers of 

 dead birds, the frightful destruction thus going on in our own and 

 other countries. It is earnestly to be hoped that the noble efforts 

 of the American Humane Society and its various branches through- 

 out the country, for the preservation' of the feathered songsters 

 from the Ruthless hands of the hunter who caters to the vitiated tastes 

 of capricious and imperious' fashion, will be effectual, and that thej 

 time will come when the wanton killing of a bird or the despoiling 

 of its nest by either man or boy, for any purpose, will not only be 

 considered disreputable, but be punished by severe legal' penalties. 



Fig. 1536.— European Goal-Sucker. 

 Feeds upon cockchafers and moths. 



