The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-04-15
TO SAVE HOSTS OF HERoNs
Aigrettes-N11IIions of Mother Birds Need Its Protection

New York, April 15-That ninety million Americans have broken party lines to support the single section of
 the tariff bill prohibiting the irnporta- ton of the plumes of butchered mother
 herons and all other wild birds was shown by reports received today from
 every section Of the country at the headquarters of the National Associa-
 tion of Audubon Societies in this city.
 In response to teIegrams of congratu-
 lation from many of the 100, 900 mem
 bers affiliated under this association,
 as well as from State game commits
 sioners, granges, won1en's clubs, n1u-
 seunls of natural history, bird protec-
 tive, scientific and sportsnens organ
 nations all over the land, the Audu
 bon leaders, who presented this sec
 ton aimed at aigrette traffic to the
 framers of this bill, are now urging all humane citizens to ask it's passage at the hands of their representa tives
 at Washington. If the bloody scalpS
 of the birds for whose nuptia1 plumes
 the whole globe has been secured for
 the millinery market are barred from American shores by this tiny tariff clause, millions of breeding birds of the most beautiful species will be saved from slaughter and eventual ex
 tinction, it is declared.
 Powerful opposition to the principle of protection of bird life. which was voiced in this section of the tariff bill in response to a countrywide demand for non-partisan human1tarianism, is
 today expected solely from the mOnied interests that maintain armies to hunt down the mother Egrets all over the world and ship their scalps to miIlin- CTS here, leaving a brood of young to Starve for each plume captured in the slaughter: If the new tariff law bans these bloody spells, it is admitted by the milliners that the vogue Of the' r-SIo 4IA PiIzd sOf Paradise and the Goura will yield to ostrich pIumes and feathers. of do mestic fowls, and the cruel traffic in murdered mother birds will cease. In order to defeat the selfish interests of the few bird butchers who thrive aigrette importation, the Federation of Womens Clubs, the New York Zoolog- ical Society and scores of other organ izations have promised to help the National Association of Audubon So- cieties present to Congress the demand of the whole American people for the passage of this tariff provision.
 Guarding 5000 egrets that still sur vive the slaughter of plume hunters in this country, the Audubon leaders have just stationed a force of war dens over thirty colonies of these per secuted 7, birds in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Louisiana If the importation. of aigrettes is forbidden by law, rep reseM ative of the millinery interests has Geclared to the framers of the tariff bill that it will not tend to st1m- ulate the butchery of these native members of the species. With the abandonment of the aigrette for mil Iinery ornament, which is promised if the bird protective clause becames law, ornithologists predict that the beautiful birds that bear these plumes will be saved from extinction here.
 -'"The greatest opportunity of the age to wipe out the cruel aigrette traffic absolutely is now presented to the American people, said T. Gilbert Pearson, secretary of the National As sociati of Audubon Societies, at its head quarters, 1874 Broadway, today. 'sEvery humane person, irrespective of political principles or party, should at once write representatives in Congress in support of this single provision in the tariff bill that will save from slaughter and extinction the worlds most beautiful bird species. We be- lieve that with the exception of 8 few feather dealers, all Of the people of our country are united in support of this legislative reprieve for the butch ere.d bir{hS.''