THE CAUSES OF THE DECREASE OF BIRDS. 
213 
struct the youth concerning the birds 
that should be protected. 
Enormous numbers of birds are 
sacrificed annually for millinery pur- 
poses. There is an opinion preva- 
lent that the birds worn 011 women’s 
hats in America are largely derived 
from the faunas of tropical regions. 
Some justification of this is to be 
found in the impossible colors of all 
sorts assumed by the plainest song- 
sters when they have passed through 
the dye-pot of the preparator. But 
there can be no question that an im- 
mense quantity of bird-life is an- 
nually destroyed in the United States 
to gratify the caprice of fashion, the 
birds thus killed being very largely 
used within our own borders, while 
many are exported to Paris and other 
European cities. The evidence on 
this point is abundantly sufficient ; 
some of it may properly be intro- 
duced here as the subject is one 
which is greatly in need of more 
general knowledge on the part of the 
public. 
An editorial article in Forest and 
Stream a few years ago (March 6, 
1884) mentions a dealer, who, dur- 
ing a three-months’ trip to the coast 
of South Carolina last spring, pre- 
pared no less than 11,018 bird skins. 
A considerable number of the birds 
killed were, of course, too much 
mutilated for preparation, so that the 
total number slain would be much 
greater than the number given. The 
person referred to states that he han- 
dles, on an average, 30,000 bird skins 
a year, of which the greater part are 
cut up for millinery purposes. 
About the same time, according to 
a writer in the Baltimore Sun, a New 
York milliner visited Cobb’s island, 
off the coast of Virginia, to get ma- 
terial to fill a foreign order for 40,000 
bird skins. She hired people to kill 
the victims, paying ten cents apiece 
for the latter. “ The birds comprised 
in this wholesale slaughter are mainly 
the different species of gulls and 
terns, or sea swallows, of which 
many species in large numbers could 
formerly be found upon this island. 
But now only a few of these grace- 
ful birds remain, and the pot-hunter-, 
or rather skin hunters, have to go 
some distance to carry out their cruel 
scheme. If we consider that with 
each old bird killed, — and only old 
birds have a suitable plumage, — also 
many of the young birds, still un- 
able to take care of themselves, are 
doomed to starvation, this wholesale 
slaughter becomes still more infam- 
ous and criminal.” 
Further south, in Florida and along 
the gulf coast, the herons and egrets 
have been ruthlessly persecuted for 
their plumage. The heronries, where 
enormous numbers of graceful birds 
formerly bred unmolested, have been 
largely broken up, and only the shy- 
ness of those remaining enables them 
to survive. It is said that a millin- 
er’s agent recently visited Texas in 
the hope of procuring the plumes of 
10.000 white egrets. One trusts that 
it was “ a hope deferred.” 
This slaughter of the innocents is 
by no means confined to our South- 
ern states. During four months 
70.000 bird skins were supplied to 
the New York trade by one Long 
Island village. “On the coast line 
of Long Island,” wrote Mr. Wm. 
Dutcher, a few years ago, ‘‘the 
slaughter has been carried on to 
such a degree that where a few years 
since thousands and thousands of 
terns were gracefully sailing over the 
