or twelve dollars," said the clerk,
"for it is very cheap at that price. These feathers are becoming scarce
and very soon we shall not be able to secure them."

Here is milady's beautiful cape glistening with all the colors of the
rainbow. Of what is this gorgeous thing made? Would you believe it
possible that it is formed entirely of humming birds' skins, with the
heads and long, slender bills? Perhaps a thousand of the tiny birds were
sacrificed that some woman might have a beautiful cape. Does it seem
possible that any gentlewoman could wear this cape, who had any
realization of the tragedies that had to take place in humming-bird life
in order that it might be made? Could she wear this cape if she knew of
the forsaken nests and the hundreds of dying young ones waiting for the
mothers that never returned?

[Illustration: _Finley & Bohlman_
Forster's tern or sea swallow on its nest. The wings and tail of this
bird are used for millinery purposes.]

But more terrible, if anything, than the story of the humming-bird cape
is the story of the delicate egret plumes on yonder hat. They once
adorned the mother bird at nesting time in some far marsh. The feathers
are almost perfect at this time, and to get them the bird must be
killed. Each bunch of egret feathers represents a family tragedy,--a
nest of little birds left to die, because the mother has been sacrificed
to satisfy the demands of fashion.

The plume hunters invade the nesting places of the egrets, herons, and
flamingos, often leaving not a single bird in what were once happy
colonies, except the starving little ones. Millions of these plumes have
been obtained along our seacoasts and about the interior lakes and
marshes. Is it any wonder that the egrets are nearly extinct as a result
of this merciless slaughter?

Now, when it is almost too late, protection has been given these
beautiful birds. Bird refuges have been established at different
favorable points along the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts and in the
Klamath and Malheur Lake regions of Oregon. These refuges are watched
over by wardens, and we hope that the birds inhabiting them will thus be
enabled to increase and again fill the almost forsaken marshes.

In our plea for the protection of the birds of attractive plumage, we
must not forget those of the tropical jungles. Remote as many of these
jungles are, the plumage hunter is devastating them already. The bird of
paradise, found in the East