February 26, 1886 ] 



SCIENCE. 



197 



the Pacific slope, where these birds are more 

 abundant, and whence their skins are brought 

 east in bales, like the peltries of the furrier, or the 

 ' robes ' of the bison. The number must range 

 far into the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands 

 annually. 



Among the smaller birds it is naturally the 

 brighter colored species that furnish most of the 

 victims, especially the orioles, tanagers, grosbeaks, 

 cedar wax-wings, bluebirds, meadow-larks, and 

 golden-winged woodpeckers. No even approxi- 

 mate estimate can be given of the number sacrificed. 

 Only their conspicuous abundance on hats and 

 bonnets, and their greatly decreased numbers, 

 attest the slaughter to which they are subjected. 

 But scarcely a bird can be named — from the rarest 

 to the commonest, from the plainest of the spar- 

 rows to the most gorgeously arrayed denizens of the 

 orchard and forest, from the tiniest warblers and 

 humming-birds to jays, kingfishers, cuckoos, and 

 the larger woodpeckers, and even ptarmigans and 

 grouse (in fragments or entire), and the largest of 

 the shore-birds, with bills half a foot in length (an 

 outre and grotesque effect seeming to be some- 

 times especially sought) — that is not to be met with 

 as an appendage of the female head-dress. 



The assemblage of diverse and incongruous 

 forms sometimes met with on the same hat is 

 often striking in the extreme ; birds from the 

 opposite ends of the earth, and of the ornithologi- 

 cal scale of classification, being brought into most 

 inharmonious combination, viewed even from the 

 artistic stand-point. Bearing on this subject, and 

 illustrating the range of taste in such matters, as 

 well as the extent to which birds are used for hat 

 embellishment, may be given the following inven- 

 tory, furnished by an ornithological friend, of 

 what recently met his eye in a Madison Avenue 

 horse-car in this city. The car contained thirteen 

 women, of whom eleven wore birds, as follows : 



(1) heads and wings of three European starlings ; 



(2) an entire bird (species unknown), of foreign 

 origin ; (3) seven warblers, representing four 

 species ; (4) a large tern ; (5) the heads and wings 

 of three shore-larks ; (6) the wings of seven shore- 

 larks, and grass-finches ; (7) one-half of a gallinule ; 

 (8) a small tern ; (9) a turtle-dove ; (10) a vireo and 

 a yellow-breasted chat ; (11) ostrich-plumes. That 

 this exhibition was by no means exceptional as to 

 number or variety is obvious to any one who has 

 given close attention to the ornithological displays 

 one daily meets with in street-cars and else- 

 where, wherever he may travel. 



Advertisements in newspapers, by milliners, of 

 the stock in hand, also give some suggestions of 

 the extent of the traffic in wings and bird-skins ; it 

 being not uncommon to see thousands of wings 



(plain or fancy, in natural colors or dyed), as well as 

 thousands of bird-skins (mounted or made up) and 

 thousands of plumes (dyed or plain), advertised by 

 a single dealer, while the dealers themselves num- 

 ber hundreds, if not thousands, in each of our 

 larger cities. Add to these the smaller shops, in 

 country and city, throughout the land, and we 

 get at least some comprehension of the extent of 

 the traffic in buds by the milliners, and the support 

 they receive from the feminine portion of our 

 population. 



Respecting the traffic abroad, we learn from an 

 English authority, that there were sold in one 

 auction-store in London, during the four months 

 ending April, 1885, 404,464 West Indian and 

 Brazilian bird-skins, and 356,389 East Indian, be- 

 sides thousands of Impeyan pheasants and birds- 

 of -paradise. 



DESTRUCTION OF BIRD-LIFE IN THE 

 VICINITY OF NEW YORK. 



To such an extent has the recent fashion of 

 using buds for hat ornaments been carried, that 

 the waters and beaches in this vicinity have been 

 entirely depopulated of then buds. On the coast- 

 line of Long Island the slaughter has been carried 

 to such a degree, that where, a few years since, 

 thousands and thousands of terns were gracefully 

 sailing over the surf -beaten shore and the wind- 

 rippled bays, now one is rarely to be seen. 



The demand for sea-birds of white or delicate 

 shades of color was so great, that many of the 

 professional gunners and market-shooters gave up 

 their usual shooting to enter upon what has proved 

 to be a war of extermination. So long as the 

 taxidermists who work for mfiliners in the large 

 cities would take all the birds that could be sup- 

 plied, the gunners were shooting day after day, 

 from daylight until dark. 



In the spring of 1884 the writer met a taxider- 

 mist from New York city, who was then on a 

 trip along the south side of Long Island, for the 

 purpose of making contracts with the gunners to 

 supply him with a certain number of birds in the 

 flesh, per day. He had facilities for making up 

 three hundred skins daily, and was trying to 

 arrange to get that number of birds. In answer 

 to an inquiry as to whether he could find a market 

 for such a number of skins in New York, he 

 replied that he had no local trade, but that his 

 stock was entirely for export to France. 



Between Coney Island and Fire Island inlet 

 there are many marshes, meadows, and low-lying 

 islands, which for years have been the breeding- 

 places of thousands of common terns or sea- 

 swallows ; and on the sandy beaches the least 



