d to most heartless cruelties. The savage, hunting for food,
kills his prey at once; but the fur trapper with a circuit which takes
sometimes a week to cover often has to leave his prey, tortured in the
traps, until it starves to death.

If the wearer of that handsome warm fur coat could know what was,
perhaps, the story of the wild creature to which it once belonged,
would she enjoy it so much? Could the wearer of that gay hat, for the
making of which not only a mother bird, but perhaps a whole family of
little ones, gave up their lives, take so much pleasure in it if she
knew the history of its plumes?

It is not the desire for warm furs about our necks or for beautiful
feathers in our hats that is wrong. It is the needless suffering that
those who hunt and trap cause the wild creatures that we should be
ashamed of and insist upon having stopped.

The work of the trapper and hunter is nearly done. These men have
despoiled for money the life of a whole continent in a few short years.
The fur-bearing animals, if hunted in moderation, would have continued
to people the wilds for all time to come. But neither the wearer of furs
nor the hunter has given one thought to their preservation.

In the getting of bird plumage for millinery purposes we find cruelties
practiced which are almost beyond our belief. The lowest savage that
ever lived on the earth could be no worse than many of our bird hunters.

Birds have habits which make them easier to kill than fur-bearing
animals. Although the modern fashion for feathers began less than fifty
years ago, the birds that afford bright and graceful plumage have
already been nearly exterminated. Now most of them are protected in our
country, and the sale of feathers from other countries is prohibited in
our markets. But there are some places where the law is not enforced, as
well as many other countries where there are no laws, and thoughtless
women still wear plumes. To supply the demands of fashion all the remote
lands as well as islands of the sea are being searched.

[Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
Young great blue herons in their nest.]

The slaughter began with the bright-colored songbirds, terns, gulls,
herons, egrets, and flamingos. Then it extended to other sea birds,
including the albatross, to bright-colored tropical birds, and to the
wonderful birds of paradise. How true is the following statement made in
a millinery store:

"You had better take the feather f