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OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN, ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN AUDUBON SOCIETIES 
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One Year 25 Cents Single Copy 5 Cents 
Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Madison, Wisconsin 
Entered as second class matter August 23, 1909, at Madison, Wis., under the act of Congress of March 3, 1879 
! VOL. XIV FERUARY, 1913 NO. 6 
THE BIRDS’ WORST ENEMY 
The pot hunter is a despicable crea- 
\ ture, but the law, state and national, 
is rapidly restricting his activities. 
The sportsman does his share of the 
' murdering yet, but one by one his kind 
| are seeing the light, and exchanging 
I their guns for cameras and field glas- 
I ses. The cat is being gradually reco- 
\ gnized as the humbug she is, although 
only two years ago I knew one to 
bring in nine killed birds in an after¬ 
noon. The nest-liunting small boy has 
| turned Boy Scout and is the birds’ 
■ warm friend. All these give us little 
concern. But one enemy the birds 
still have, the most implacable, the 
hardest to reach, the most difficult to 
convince, enough to drive any but the 
stoutest hearts to despair. 
Who is this monstrous creature? yon 
ask. Not monstrous at all, far from 
it. Very charming indeed, at times. 
Who ? The woman who insists on 
wearing feathers on her hat. But what 
| can a few feathers on her liat have to do 
with the millions of birds the world 
possesses. A great deal. In the few 
months of a strike of dock workers in 
London there accummulated on the 
docks feathers for millinery purposes, 
representing five million birds. To 
supply aigrettes the heronries of oui 
south have been depopulated. The 
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aigrettes have been torn from the 
backs of still living birds; the birds 
left to die a slow and awful death; 
their young left to starve in their 
nests. The only parrots that were 
known to inhabit North America (yes 
even up to Wisconsin) have been ex¬ 
terminated. 
Those magnificent sailors of the air, 
the gulls, have been slaughtered by 
endless thousands. Nine hundred 
skins of pretty humming birds were 
only a few weeks ago taken from one 
dealer in New York. 
In our country the law largely for¬ 
bids it. But madame must have her 
feathers, because she can pay for them. 
She probably would resent it severely 
if one should call her not law-abiding. 
But if she is willing to pay for and 
wear that which the law forbids, or 
that which can be brought to her only 
through the violation of the law, is 
she law abiding? And if she, with 
money, education, refinement, is will¬ 
ing to ignore the law, can you blame 
the plume-hunter, who has none of 
these if he defies the law, both human 
and divine, to get that for which she 
is willing to pay. 
There are of course feathers, such as 
ostrich plumes and others, which can 
be legitimately procured, without 
