204 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



So with humming-birds, which are killed in incredible 

 numbers — hundreds of thousands — for the adornment of ladies, 

 and which must, in a very short time if the fashion be persisted 

 in, result in the extermination of several of the " fashionable " 

 species. As to the trimming of dresses with robins' or swallows' 

 breasts and heads, and such like survivals of a savage state of 

 life, nothing can be said, because probably both designers 

 and wearers are too thoughtless or too callous to heed our 

 words. 



Is it of the slightest avail trying to strengthen what has 

 been written before, and to give pause to the abominable cruelties 

 practised in the name of Fashion and threatening the near 

 extinction of many species of animals, by quoting the following 

 from an American paper and repeated by Professor Ward in 

 his Natural Science Bulletins ? 



THE HALO 



W. C. Gannett, in Unity 



One London dealer in birds received, when the fashion was at its 

 height, a single consignment of 32,000 dead humming-birds ; and 

 another received at another time 30,000 aquatic birds, and 300,000 

 pairs of wings. 



Think what a price to pay. 

 Faces so bright and gay, 

 Just for a hat ! 

 Flowers unvisited, mornings unsung, 

 Sea-ranges bare of the wings that o'erswung, — 

 Bared just for that ! 



Think of the others, too, 

 Others and mothers, too. 

 Bright eyes in hat ! 

 Hear you no mother-groan floating in air. 

 Hear you no Uttle moan, — birdlings' despair, — 

 Somewhere, for that ? 



