INTRODUCTION. ‘ XXXVII 
that anti-plumage-wearing societies have already been established by the more intelligent 
women of that country; and it has already been suggested, apparently independent of 
any similar action abroad, by ladies themselves, that the women of this country throw 
their influence in a similar way against the barbarous custom of using birds for per- 
sonal 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 degree, 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. 
In the “American Field” I find the following article on the merciless war upon our 
birds from the pen of United States Senator Hon. Charles Aldrich of Iowa: 
“There can be no doubt that the birds of Iowa, as of the country at large, are 
yearly diminishing at a rate which should excite our most serious apprehensions, though 
we would seem to be less merciless in some respects, in the treatment we give them, 
than the people of certain other regions. Just now, December 5, we are having the 
most beautiful winter weather — 
‘When comes the calm, mild day, as still such days will come, 
To call the squirrel and the bee from out their winter home.’ 
“But there is a wonderful dearth of birds. In the old times, say fifteen or twenty 
years ago, on such bright, beautiful days we would see large numbers of our winter 
species, the noisy Jays, troops of charming little Chickadees, the busy Horned Larks, 
Creepers, and Nuthatches, the lively Winter Sparrows, an occasional Shrike, and prob- 
ably other species. Sometimes the Blackbirds remained for several days in December, 
and in frequent instances the Robins were seen even in mid-winter. But to-day the 
fields and woods are well nigh tenantless; so far as the birds are concerned. 
“Possibly on going through a thicket one might see a pair of Jays, or a very few 
Chickadees, but the abundant bird-life of winter which used to impart such a charm to 
the landscape on days like this is gone, and the saddest idea connected with the subject 
is, that it has gone never to return. As it is with the winter birds, so it is, even in a 
more marked degree with our summer species, for many birds come here to winter 
which breed in wild regions in the far North. 
“Tt would seem that the status of such species should be little changed, but it is 
true that their numbers are diminishing most certainly in the locality where I am writ- 
ing. The unwelcome fact meets an observer at every turn, and the more he sees and 
reflects, the more settled will his belief become, that the alarming evil of bird destruction 
is utterly remediless. True, laws exist for their preservation, but they are totally dis- 
regarded. Writers for agricultural and general newspapers are continually sounding 
the alarm, showing the certainty and the dangers, and yet it would be easy to demon- 
strate that all such efforts fall to the ground, unheeded and uncared for, 
