News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-01-29
BIRDS THAT 60 ON HATS.
Au Explanation of Some of the Mysterfou,
Creations that are Seen.
A great heap of widespread antlArs

A great heap of widespread antlers in
q window, with simple black-and.white
sign above them which reads, "Taxider.
mist" is the only street display of a
New York place of business where bun-
dreds of thousands of birds have been
fiayed and their skins dressed for the
ornamenting of hats and bonnets. and
hundreds of hides of all sorts of animals.
from a mouse to cinnamon bear or an
African tiger, have been mounted for
the use of dealers in furs and the decor
alton of parlors and studies. The chief
part of the business is the preparation of
birds for milliners. A pretty black-eyed
girl behind the counte< in the front
room said thasz the en-, was OF very
brisk in winter, bat with the coming Of
the birds in spring it would become very
lively.
"What kind of birds do you use
most ?"
''The common sorts - red-winged
blackbirds, reed birds, snipes, turtle
doves, orioles, yellow birds, thrushes.
Any small bird can be used"
GLOW do you get them.?"
eve buy them of men who make
business of supplying us. Most of the
birds we handle come from New Jersey,
but good many come from Long
Island, and we receive some from the
West and South. A few are imported. "
"What do You pay for them p
s'That depends on the fashions en-
tirely. Two years ago the demand of
the milliners was for red wings and yell
low birds. We paid from twenty to
thirty-fve cents apiece, and at one time
we had to pay as high as forty-seven
cents apiece for lot. Last year we got
all we wanted at from seven to eight
cents each. When the hunters have to
supply a brisk demand, they can get
more, of course, because the supply of
birds of each variety does not vary from
year to year."
"Do the hunters shoot the birds ?"
ST guess not. I do not find any shot
in faying those bought from regular
customers"
s'How do they catch them then p
81 guess you could not get them to
tell you. There is one man who brings
us from 1. 500 to 2, 900 week during the
warm months. He says he has part
ner and no other help. He lives in Red
Bank. One would think the woods
would be depopulated, or else that he
would get rich enough and retire, but
he has been working away for years
now."
"Where do all these fancy birds that
look like pictures of tropical rarities
come from?"
"AlI from Jersey. By inserting
snipe's bill in the place of the bill OF
CROW blackhigd, and. then combining
parts of the skin OF otEer cl-inon pffds,
we produce a monstrosity: but if the
colors are we'll n..tched the result is
attractive to the common eye, however
grotesque it may appear to one who
knows all about disappearance of birds.
Is uOb uuCOLILOOu w SOO Ii O11O NtAdhS
street windows hats. that have half a
dozen bird heads projecting from one
mass of feathers that might be the
breast of swan or the pickings from
secondhand pillow. The wings that
adorn some hats are about as much like
wings as stovepipe is like lead pen
ell. But those queer tastes are the max
ing of our business. The portions of
the birds skin which are cut away when
mounting bird naturally for hat can
all be used up for wings by gluing them
on a model. I read the other day about
an Ohio young woman whose nerves
were wholly shattered in millinery
store because, as the paper said, of her
sympathy for the poor little birds she
had to handle. guess there was some
error about that. I think the shock
must have come from contemplation
of some of our combination birds. She
has nv svmDathy"