1 98 



RECREATION. 



morning until sunset. The prjccs were 3 

 cents each for small birds, 8 cents (or tli< j 

 larger kinds, and io cents for gulls arid 

 herons. Nobody gets rich, but the birds 

 are vanishing. Unless we can find some 

 way to take the money value from birds 5 

 years more will finish them, no matter 

 where they are or how numerous now. 



The only reason the Swan Island and 

 Currituck Shooting clubs have been able 

 to hold on is because their marshes are so 

 well situated, and because they spend an 

 almost unlimited amount for law and 

 guards. 



Their marshes being well protected, 

 when the fowl are driven out of the sound 

 they take refuge there. If the slaughter 

 continues as now these 2 clubs will soon 

 have a monopoly of what little shooting 

 will be left. 



The people who buy and use the game 

 and feathers are really responsible for the 

 destruction of the birds. If there were no 

 price on ducks there would be as many 



here now as io years ago, when a pound of 



powder kept a family in food all winter. 

 We cannot have a game and feather mar- 

 ket and have the birds, too. If we keep 

 the market now, we shall soon have to 

 give up both; but if we give up the mar- 

 ket at once, we may keep our birds for 

 many years yet. 



The whole question rests with the con- 

 sumers. If no one ate game, except what 

 he killed, the market would disappear, the 

 birds would be plentiful, and a man could 

 have a decent day's sport whenever he 

 wanted it. 



Laws are no good here, as far as real 

 game protection goes. We have enough 

 laws in this county to protect all the game 

 in the world, but just as long as birds and 

 feathers sell just so long will the exter- 

 mination go on. 



I repeat, there is but one way to protect 

 the birds — don't buy game and don't wear 

 feathers. 



SPARE THE MINSTRELS. 



A. L. VERMILYA. 



Women of America, in the name of all 

 that is good, and happy, and bright, and 

 cheerful, do not longer decorate your hats 

 with birds. Cease to follow this cruel man- 

 date of fashion, ere the last songster has, 

 at your behest, been slain! 



Are worms, beetles and caterpillars more 

 pleasing to your sight than gaily tinted 

 birds flitting among the trees? Is the voice 

 of locust, or the rasping chirp of cricket 

 nore pleasant to your ears than the melodi- 

 ous song of our little feathered musicians 

 which nature has given for our cheer? Is 

 it nothing to you that these happy little 

 creatures of song play a most important 

 part in the economy of nature, and that 

 scientists and ornithologists the world over 

 have declared the earth would soon become 

 uninhabitable to man should all the birds 

 be swept away? Is there no" pity in your 

 hearts when you think of birds with broken 

 wings, and bodies torn by the hunter's shot, 

 creeping away to some secluded spot to die, 

 while the young wait in vain for the par- 

 ents' return and at last perish of starvation 

 in the nests? Must you forever follow the 

 decrees of cold, imperious fashion, regard- 

 less of their cruelty, or whither they mav 

 lead? Must compassion, humanity, and all 

 the better attributes of your natures be laid 

 on the altar of pride and ostentation? 



One little songster perched outside the 

 window of a stately temple of fashion is 

 worth far more than the display within of 

 an aviary of dead birds; and one robin 

 chirping about the lawn is far more pleas- 

 ing to the sight than the piles of wings and 

 feathers displayed in milliners' windows. 

 Think of the woods and fields made deso- 

 late by the wanton destruction of the rain- 

 bow-tinted minstrels that were wont to 

 greet the rising sun with their matin carols, 

 and that, after lending cheer to the summer 

 day, at evening chanted their vespers from 

 the lofty trees. 



To-day, in thousands of woodland dells 

 that once resounded with the songs of 

 birds, the only sound that greets the ear is 

 the noise of insects, while the flowers, 

 seamed and scarred by devastating foes, 

 bow their heads in sorrow, and through 

 the branches of the trees the wind sighs a 

 mournful requiem for the departed songster 

 tenants. 



Let us change all this by protecting the 

 birds, and giving them a chance to refill 

 their depleted ranks and again make 

 woods and fields merry with their music. 

 Let us usher in a new era, an era of love of 

 nature and her works; and to this end we 

 ask, women of America, for your influence 

 and support to protect the feathered min- 

 strels. 



