The Portland daily press., 1886-05-29
pestruction OF Birds.

GPaper read by Mrs r. HI. Turner before the
Longfellow C. L. S. c., and published by request
of tile Circle.l
| When the prophet Isaiah wished to use an
| Illustration that should typify bitter desola-
| ton he made the King Of Assyria say: "My
| hand hath found as nest the riches of the
people and as are gathered eggs that are
| left have gathered all the earth, and there
was none that moved the wing or that
opened the mouth, or chirped." That dreary
day is coming in America, coming with
| speed, hurried on by the very wings of the
birds whose loss we mourn. 1t is only a
matter of calculation to tell when the days
mourned by the prophet shall be ours in New
| England, when there shall be no birds to
| ''move the wing save the. immigrant spar
row, who alone will be left with his discord-
ant "chirp." For the past three years and
half there has been such a demand for birds
for decorative purposes that some kinds are
nearly or quite extinct, while the shores,
woods, orchards and fields, which were once
SO full of birds, are desolate and mute. He
whe loves nature-and who does not?-
would as soon miss the bright hues of the
flowers, the restful color of the grass, the
everchanging skies, as the presence of the
birds. Their songs are the most character
istic features of articulate nature, and Occur
ply place that nothing else could fill.
Go into the old pastures, the orchards, the
meadows, and see for yourselves. They are
desolated, they are like gardens without
flowers, or the sky without sun, moon, or
stars, and all for what? Let the women an
swer. Accountable is the wholesale slaugh-
ter of birds for ornamental purposes.
Three generations Of men will pass away
before the birds can be restored to the num-
Der and condition of four years ago. Mr..
Bergh of New York, and Mr.. Angel of Bos-
ton have brought to light a few facts which
may well startle u.s..
From one small village on Long Island sew
enty thousand skins were sent last summer
to New York. An enterpriSing New York
milliner sent forty thousand skins to Paris
last year, receiving forty cents apiece. On
Cape Cod, forty thousand terms alone were
killed in one season, for the hat trade. The
beautiful grebe skins are brought East in
bales, like the pelting of the furrier, by tens
if not by hundreds of thousands.
One London dealer in birds received,
when the fashion was at its hight, single
consignment of thirty-taC0 thousand dead
humming birds, and another received, at one
time, thirty thousand aquatic birds, and
three hundred thousand pairs of wings. The
same sad havoc has been wrought with the
egrets and herons along our Southern shores,
the statistics of which, could they be pre-
sented, would be of startling magnitude.
We only know that colonies numbering
hundreds and even thousands of pairs have
been simply annihilated, wholly wiped out
of existence,-in supplying the .exhaustless
demand for egret plumes: Among the
smaller birds it is naturally the brlghter.col-
ored species that furnish most OF the victims,
especially the orioles, tanagers, gros-beaks,
cedar WaX-wings, blue-birds, meadow-larks.
Oh, to think of it!-and golden-winged wood
peckers. No even approximate estimate can
be given of the number sacrificed. only
their conspicuous abundance on hats and
bonnets, and their greatly decreased num-
bers, attest the slaughter to which they are
subjected. The loss of the birds which are
insectiyerous has already caused quite APP
preciable loss on the farmers crops, ana we
are destined to see plague of insect life, SO
great as to entail important commercial con-
Sequences to the country at large. Nothing
but birds can regulate the increase OF IN
sects, and keep it within bounds, and to de-
stroy the birds, as we have done, IS crime
of the highest order against society.
Against less than five hundred thousand
North American birds sacrificed to science
from the beginning of scientific study up to
the present time, more than five millions are
annually sacrificed for decorations.
A million rails and bobolinks killed IN a
single month near Philadelphia for the same
purpose.
Is the fashion declining? 1t is changing
rather than declining. regret to say that
the PariSans are to wear more BIRDS on
their dresses than ever, and want canarles.
It SENS like decree of his late majesty, the
King of Dahomey, that people should appear
in court with decoration composed Oh the
teeth of maidens and children!
So we must wear eanaries, l suppose, and
fools will be found who will emulate an Eng
fish nobleman ~ and send to their sweet,
hearts 500 or 600 of Gods most beautlfnl ana
delicate creatures, to be used as a trimming
for gowns. 20 1lon,ao yas
in a limited but marked degree. Every tlme
your New York, or your Boston, OF your
Philadelphia gourmand eats ms disil Oh reeo-
bird on toast, he eats, under its winter name,
the bobolink the skylark OF America, oae
most glorious songster of our northern meat os
ows. and the best friend the farmer mas
among the feathered tribe What a siaihe
it is. .4,,,,,o,, Of
| suppose that our American gentlemen VI
culture have felt indignation when they reau
in their college days of the wanton prom