MURDEROUS MILLINERY. , 9 
ing among the native Indians in California 
during the last four years, as serving to 
emphasise the need of more stringent laws, 
and their strict enforcement, as the only 
means of checking the millinery collectors. 1 
But what law can protect egrets in far-off 
swamps and marshes, when they are not safe 
even on private property under the shadow 
of sacred groves and temples, where natives 
and European residents alike value their 
bright presence ? 
Here is a case in point. In a recent 
number of the Cornhill Magazine Mrs. Little 
describes the extirpation of white herons in 
her home at Chungking, Western China. 
She says that the supply of egrets’ crests has 
well-nigh given out in South America, whilst 
the demand for aigrettes is greater than ever. 
One day her husband received a letter offer¬ 
ing him good terms for heron’s crests. He 
refused, but during his absence in England a 
similar offer was made to the representative 
left in charge of the business, and one day 
Mr. Little received in London, by post, a 
box—“ such a little box ”—containing fifty 
pounds’ worth of herons’ plumes. 
It is painful, for other reasons besides the 
fate of the birds themselves, to hear how they 
were wont to search the rice-fields for the 
insects that formed their food, and how 
the blue-gowned peasants watched the fair 
creatures whom they called “ good to see,” 
and talked of in that soft Chinese that 
country people use of anything they love 
much. It would be small comfort to them 
to know that “people in London can nid-nod 
1 Report of American Ornithological Union (Bird 
Protection) Committee. Witmer Stone, Chairman. 
The Auk, January, 1900. 
