6 
MURDEROUS MILLINERY. 
witness to the recent presence of the hunter. 
Under a bunch of grass a dead heron was 
discovered, from whose back the plumes had 
been torn. The ground was still moist with 
its blood. The dirt had been beaten smooth 
with its wings, its neck was arched, the 
feathers on its head were raised and its bill 
was buried in the blood-clotted feathers of its 
breast, where a gaping wound showed that 
the leaden missile had struck. It was an 
awful picture of pain. Sorely wounded this 
heron had crawled away, and after enduring 
hours of agony had died the victim of a 
foolish fashion. Mr. Pearson adds:— 
'* Unless something is done to stop this awful 
slaughter it is only a question of a few years before 
the herons, not only of Florida, but of the whole world 
will be exterminated. Women who know of the 
cruelty necessary to procure the feathers they wear on 
their hats should stop wearing them, and exert their 
influence to make other women see how cruel and 
wicked they are.” 
A minority have been doing this, and after 
years of ineffectual effort can but sorrow¬ 
fully acquiesce in the statement made by a 
writer in the Field (November 15, 1890) that 
the appeal to women of so-called civilised 
countries not to encourage the ruthless 
slaughter of birds during the nesting season, 
when the young are necessarily doomed to 
perish by starvation, has been made and made 
in vain. Even at that time the demand for 
plumage was so great that in various parts 
of India the native agriculturists would sell 
their oxen and ploughs to purchase guns and 
ammunition, in order to obtain the blood- 
money offered for the lives of their feathered 
fellow-workers. 
The traffic was the more shameless, because 
according to the testimony of Mr. J. Lee 
