INTRODUCTION. XXXIX 
“But there are two modes of bird destruction in active, increasing operation, which 
occasion more wholesale losses than all others. They ought to be easily preventable, 
and would be if we had an enlightened public sentiment on the side of the birds—and 
humanity. The first of those is the demand for bird-skins for the purpose of decorating 
female ‘hat-gear.’ In every ordinary milliner’s shop you will find bird-skins of many 
species, and of various qualities and prices to suit the tastes and pockets of their 
customers. A great majority of the ladies we meet, in town or country, have their 
bonnets or hats ornamented with the skins of birds. It is a strange taste on the part 
of the gentler sex—the best half of creation—this decorating of their heads at such a 
fearful cost of bird suffering and bird life! If they could but realize the economical 
losses, the terrible suffering which this cruel fashion visits upon the beautiful birds, 
together with the threatened extinction of entire species, most certainly would our 
women, one and all, resolve never to use another bird-skin for any decorative purpose 
whatever. 
“Some features of this business of gathering the skins of birds are simply atrocious. 
In many portions of this country men make a regular business of shooting birds for 
their skins. The rule is to kill every bird that comes within shooting distance. If 
fashion does not now demand the skins of any particular species, it will before long— 
or the feathers may be colored to suit some mysterious, inscrutable taste! An idea is 
said also to prevail, to the effect that the skins should be torn off as soon as possible 
after the bird is in hand. I have somewhere read that this is often done while the poor 
bird is still living and writhing in agony!—though I hope such ‘cussedness’ is not 
practiced in the United States. 
“Can there be any preventive of this branch of bird murder? It is scarcely to be 
hoped, when we have the greed of the murderers and the demands of fashion to sustain 
this infamous destruction of our ‘feathered friends.’ No argument upon such a topic is 
needed. The man or woman who does not revolt at the simplest statement of the facts 
is quite beyond the reach of argument. 
“The other direction in which the birds are suffering fearful and untold destruc- 
tion, is that of the stealing of their eggs by town and village boys. Within four or - 
five years a perfect mania has sprung up in this new domain of wickedness. Boys from 
nine to fifteen years of age are allowed by their parents to indulge their esthetic taste 
in making ‘collections’ of birds’ eggs. So they organize in bands and go out into the 
fields and woods, robbing every nest they are able to find—and their eyes are very 
sharp for this business. The contents of the shells are blown out, and they are then 
arranged in ‘strings.’ In some places competition for the largest ‘strings’ of shells runs 
very high among the sons of village magnates. Parents who religiously insist that 
their children shall be regular in attendance upon the Sunday School, and learn their 
lessons perfectly, still allow them to indulge in the wicked and unlawful business of 
stealing the eggs of our birds! Occasionally a mother is oppressed by a sense of its 
criminality, and makes Peterkin promise that he will only take one egg from a nest! 
But what difference does this make when boys sweep over a tract of land in squads, 
carrying off every egg they find! From what I hear, the extent of loss.in this way is 
almost beyond belief,.and quite beyond computation. A squad of these little thieves 
J 
