The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1886-07-31
BIRD SLAUGHTER.


About seven years ago proaigate
woman appeared at ball in Paris
wearing a stuffed bird as one of the or
naments of her bonnet She had no
thought of starting 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 women
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.
plumage birds has been necessary to
meet the demand of this barbarous
fashion. Seventy thousand white cur
LEWIS were delivered in New York in
four months time. Competent au-
thorities estimate that for several
years past there has been an annual
slaughter of 5000, 900 song-birds in this
country alone, and Mr.. &. 4. Gordon,
president of the American Humane So
ciety, says it will take three genera
tons of mankind to restore the birds to
the number and condition of four years
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. M ertr
Fortunately there has come at last a
rebellion against this fashion so revolt
ing in its nature and odious in its ORR
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 carcasses 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 protection
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,
depraved taste of Partisan profigate
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
attention, 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
guess-work. 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 5,000,00 birds
are slaughtered every year. The farm
ers ought to be aroused to the inn
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
wanton destruction of song-birds. The
massacre of the birds may soon prove
a very serious matter, and the Audubon
societies should not be left to combat
the evil single-handed.- Chicago Trib-
af41o