St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-06-19
BIRD SLAUGHTER.
Some Of the Serious Consequences Of the
Wholesale Destruction of SOngsters.

Some Of the Serious Consequences Of thl
Wholesale Destruction Of Songsters.
About seven years ago . prOfligate
woman appeared at a ball in Paris
wearing stuffed bird as one of the or.
naments of her bonnet. She had nc
thought of starting a new fashion; she
aimed only to make herself conspicu.
Gus for the passing hour; but her wan
ton freak has since found millions OF
imitators AMONG all classes of womeI
on two continents. Linnets, orioles,
hummingbirds, woodpeckers. bull.
finches, canaries, snowbirds, mocking.
birds, sparrows, bluejays, robins,
blackbirds and even canvasback ducks
are in demand. no species being safe
except those whose weight is too great
for them to be carried as head-gear.
An enormous slaughter of song and
plumage birds has been necessary to
meet the demand of this barbarous
fashion. Seventy thousand white cur.
lews were delivered in New York ir
four months time. Competent au.
thOrities estimate that for several
years past there has been an annual
slaughter of 5,OO0.O 900 song-birds in this
country alone, and Mr.. e. Z. Gordon.
president of the American Humane So
ciety, says it will take three genera
tions of mankind to restore the birds tc
the number and condition of four Year,
ago. The chimney swallow is about
the only bird exempt from slaughter,
but the chief demand of the milliners
is for meadow-larks, snowbirds. cedar
birds, bluebirds, robins. mockingbirds
sparrows and terms The latter species
has been almost exterminated, and
scarcely specimen can now be found
along the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod
tO Mexico Every State has been laid
under tribute, and men and boys armed
with cheap shot-guns have ravaged
fields and forests in every part of the
country, creating havoc to CRAFTY
idiotic vanity that can not be repaired
within the lifetime of any man now
living.
Fortunately there has come at last
rebellion against this fashion so revolt
ing in its nature and odious in its Ori-
gin. Oddly enough. the protest is led
by women and has broken forth stimuli
taneously in the fashionable circles OF
the East and in the agricultural States
of the West. societies being formed in
both sections to discourage the wearing
of dead birds as ornaments. Doubtless
this action has been stimulated by the
widely-published assertion that some
birds are skinned alive to preserve the
full beauty of their plumage, and even
ultra-fashionable women do not feel
that they should be required to sport
trophies of cruelty among their person
al decorations. Indignant naturalists
declare that the taste which authorizes
the wearing of bird carcasse. as orna-
ments is essentially the same as that OF
the savage who rejoices in display OF
scalp-locks. Savages, however, wear
only feathers as articles of adornment.
and when they carry about the bodies
of birds or rodents it is not for the pur-
pose of decoration but for projection
against evil charms. The theory that
the notwithstanding fashion is an inn
itation of the savages must fall to the
ground. 1t originated in the vicious.
taste of a Partisan profligate
woman and has caused fearful havoc
among the songsters of the field and
forest. In consequence of its rage the
warblers are disappearing from the
groves and the sweetest music of sum-
mer days is becoming silenced.
There is another aspect of the bird
slaughter which certainly demands
and that is the injury to
farm crops through the unchecked
ravages of insects. 1t has been esti-
mated that the death of every insect
eating bird means a loss of four bushels
of grain. This estimate may be very
wide of the mark and founded only on
but it is certainly true in
some degree: and if the injury to crops
is only one-fourth as great as stated
the damage must be considered APP
palling when at least 100000 birds
are slaughtered every year. The farm
ers ought to be aroused to the i'm.
portance of keeping the bird-hunters
off their premises. Legislators can not
attack female fashion, however sense
less or revolving it may be, but they
ought to provide penalties for the
destruction of song-birds. The
of the birds may soon prove
a very serious matter, and the Audubon
should not be left to combat
the evil single-handed.- Chicago Trib
1ne.
The American maid is bound to
H.