SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 160 



public museums, less those of foreign origin, and 

 we have, allowing our exaggerated estimates to be 

 true, less than 500,000 as the number of North 

 American birds thus far sacrificed for science. 

 The few thousand that have been sent to other 

 countries in exchange for foreign birds can safely 

 be included under the above estimate, which is at 

 least a third above the actual number. 



We have now passed briefly in review all the 

 agencies and objects affecting the decrease of 

 our birds, save one, and that the most important 



— many times exceeding all the others together, 



— the most heartless and the least defensible, 

 namely, the sacrifice of birds to fashion, for hat 

 ornamentation and personal decoration. Start- 

 ling as this assertion may seem, its demonstration 

 is easy. 



In this country of 50,000,000 inhabitants, half, 

 or 25,000,000, may be said to belong to what some 

 one has forcibly termed the ' dead-bird wearing 

 gender,' of whom at least 10,000,000 are not only 

 of the bird-wearing age, but — judging from what 

 we see on our streets, in public assemblies and 

 public conveyances — also of bird- wearing proclivi- 

 ties. Different individuals of this class vary 

 greatly in their ideas of style and quantity in the 

 way of what constitutes a proper decoration for 

 that part of the person the Indian delights to orna- 

 ment with plumes of various kinds of wild fowl. 

 Some are content with a single bird, if a large one, 

 mounted nearly entire : others prefer several small 

 ones, — a group of three or four to half a dozen ; 

 or the heads and wings of even a greater number. 

 Others, still, will content themselves with a few 

 wings fancifully dyed and bespangled, or a 

 wreath of grebe ' fur,' usually dyed, and not un- 

 frequently set off with egret-plumes. In the aver- 

 age, however, there must be an incongruous 

 assemblage made up of parts of various birds, or 

 several entire birds, representing at least a num- 

 ber of individuals. But let us say that these 10,- 

 000,000 bird-wearers have but a single bird each, 

 that these birds may be ' made over ' so as to do 

 service for more than a single season ; and still 

 what an annual sacrifice of bird-life is entailed ! 

 Can it be placed at less than 5,000,000 ? — ten times 

 more than the number of specimens extant in all 

 our scientific collections, private and public to- 

 gether, and probably a thousand times greater 

 than the annual destruction of birds (including 

 also eggs) for scientific purposes. 



Fortunately, perhaps, the supply of bird-skins 

 for decorative purposes is not all drawn from a 

 single country, the whole world being laid under 

 tribute. The ornithologist recognizes in the het- 

 erogeneous groups of birds on women's hats, met 

 with on every hand, a great preponderance of 



North American species ; but with them are many 

 of the common buds of Europe, and a far greater 

 variety from South America, and many from 

 Africa, Australia, New Guinea, and India. But, 

 on the other hand, it is well known that our own 

 birds are exported in immense numbers to Europe ; 

 but, whether the exportation exceeds the importa- 

 tion, it is impossible to determine, from lack of 

 proper statistics. 



With the foregoing facts before us in regard to 

 the annual destruction of our birds, it is no longer 

 surprising that many species, and even genera, of 

 birds, are fast disappearing from our midst. Con- 

 sidering that this slaughter has been waged for 

 years, but with rapid increase year by year, is it 

 not rather a wonder that so many birds are still 

 left? 



The extent to which this destruction is carried 

 on, and in what ways, in the immediate vicinity 

 of New York, is indicated in a subsequent article 

 of this series, by Mr. Dutcher. But the slaughter 

 extends in greater or less degree throughout 

 the country. The destruction of 40,000 terns in 

 a single season on Cape Cod for exportation, a 

 million rails and reed-birds (bobolinks) killed in a 

 single month near Philadelphia, are facts that may 

 well furnish food for reflection. The swamps and 

 marshes of Florida are well known to have re- 

 cently become depopulated of their egrets and 

 herons, while the state at large has been for years 

 a favorite slaughter-ground of the milliner's emis- 

 saries. The present winter parties organized and 

 equipped in this interest are said to be prose- 

 cuting the same wholesale warfare against the 

 birds at various points along the whole gulf- 

 coast. 



But why, some may be supposed to ask, should 

 the slaughter be interfered with ? Does it not yield 

 profit to many an impecunious idler, who receives 

 so much per head from the ' taxidermist ' for the 

 freshly killed bird? Do not their preparation 

 and manufacture into the gaudy or otherwise 

 untasteful hat-gear give employment to many a 

 needy hand, and add materially to the milliner's 

 gains ? Why is not their use for personal decora- 

 tion, a la sauvage, as legitimate and defensible as 

 their use for food, with the added advantage of 

 being able to utilize decoratively a great many 

 species otherwise of no commercial value? Why 

 should we be anxious to preserve our birds? Are 

 they, when alive, of any practical value, or do 

 they contribute in any way to our pleasure or 

 well-being ? 



In regard to the first of these inquiries, the men 

 and boys really get little more in the average for 

 the raw material than enough to pay them for 



their powder and shot: it is the 'Sport' that 



