PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF BIRDS 137 



Of course this is generally due to thoughtlessness. These 

 women would shrink with horror at the thought of doing 

 the killing themselves, or even if they realized fully that others 

 had to do it for them. 



From the tropics to the polar regions birds are shot for 

 plumage for the millinery trade. As the feathers for hats 

 sometimes bring $15 per ounce, it is a great temptation for 

 men to go and hunt the birds. Beautiful paroquets, orioles, 

 tanagers, terns, egrets, and other kinds of harmless or useful 

 birds are killed in great numbers. If ladies must adorn 

 themselves with borrowed plumage, let them use the feathers 

 of gam.e birds, which are shot for food anyway, and of the 

 domesticated birds, among which we may now include the 

 ostnch. 



The story of the American egret and the snowy egret, 

 which furnish the beautiful aigrettes for hats, is especially 

 pathetic. Aigrettes are the plumes that develop on the 

 head, wings, and back of the egrets, and are finest in the 

 breeding season. In the southern part of the United States, 

 where they live, they form large colonies where, in the breed- 

 ing period, it is an easy matter for hunters to kill them 

 by hundreds. The saddest feature of this slaughter is that, 

 when their parents are shot, the young are left to starve 

 miserably. Women should be ashamed to be in any man- 

 ner connected with this cruel business. As long as they will 

 buy and wear aigrettes, however, there will be a demand for 

 the plumes, and hunters will be paid to furnish them. 



The millinery trade demands enormous numbers of 

 feathers whenever they are the fashion. Some plumage 

 is imported from other countries, particularly the tropical 

 regions, where the birds are most gorgeously colored. 



