Coast. These factors of extermination were especially 
active during the last twenty-five years of the nineteenth 
century. 
As regards the subject of bird protection, it is interest¬ 
ing and encouraging to compare the state of mind and 
moral sense of people in general at that time and today. 
The sportsman, with a long autumn, winter and spring 
season, as a rule respected the close season for game birds, 
but for birds whose value today is admitted to be largely 
aesthetic he thought nothing. If he exterminated them 
there was no regret. They were of no use, and, if they 
afforded good flying marks, as did the terns, he had no 
scruples about shooting them and leaving their beautiful 
bodies, mangled and bloodstained, where they fell. He did 
not even take the trouble to kill wounded birds that had 
thus served as his target. If he had feminine friends or 
relatives who would appreciate the graceful wings for their 
hats, he felt even virtuous in destroying the birds for these 
trophies, and the women thought no ill of the practice. The; 
fact that it was the fashion to wear these wings in hats 
dulled all thought on the subject. The men who went into 
the business of supplying the greedy millinery trade felt 
that the cruelty involved, if they thought of it at all, and 
the possible total destruction of the birds was fully justi¬ 
fied by the dollars received. If the adult terns were more 
easily shot when their nests were invaded or their young 
put in danger, then it was laudable to take advantage of 
these circumstances. Anyone having scruples on this point 
was an unreasonable sentimentalist and did not deserve the 
rewards of business. 
Today all this is changed. Thanks to broader views and 
the teaching of ornithologists in general, and of the Audu¬ 
bon Societies in particular, and by reason of laws enacted 
through their efforts, people are beginning to realize the 
justice and importance of preserving these birds. Their 
sense of fitness has been aroused, they begin to feel the 
value of birds from a purely aesthetic point of view, as 
adding beauty and interest to the landscape, although few 
35 
