VICTIMS TO FASHION'S WHIMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 2 December 1907, Page 4

VICTIMS TO FASHION'S WHIMS.

(By Amy E. Hack, in the "Sydney Morning Herald.") Of al Hhe cruelties for which modern civilisation is responsible, there is perhaps none more pitiable than the tragedy which is enacted every year when the massacre of the egrets occurs. In spite of all that has been said and written on the subject, weuion still continue to adorn their heads with the plumes stolen from the egrets, or white cranes. Hundreds of mother birds are slaughtered every spring, and numberless baby birds are left to die of starration in order that woman's vanity may be appeased by the addition of a white plume to her toilet. At any evening gathering of fashionable women can be seen dozens of these plundered plumes waving gracefully from the lwck of faces of careless and indifferent beauties. For this much must be allowed to their account—most women are ignorant of the actual cruelty attached to {he procuring of their ornaments. But ignorance in thes edays of much knowledge is a, feeble plea. It is no excuse for the breaking of the law of the land, and why should it serve in the violation of the law of life! Still, is there is no denying the fact that such ignorance does greatly prevail, 't is as well that women should be told a few truths about the annual tragedy for which they are responsible.

It is not only in distant lands that the barbarous practice of slaying the egrets prevails; it is right in our midst—a fact of which most men as well as women are unaware. Crulety at a distance arouses a momentary shudder of disgust, and then it is forgotten: but when it exists at our own doors, it must be faced and fought outright. The beautiful plumed egret which provides the white ospreys so much prized in millinery is not, as most people imagine, foundonly in foreign countries. It has its representative amougst our Australian birds, and many of the" plumes are procured locally. - Among the tali-gum trees of the Murray smefpithe white cranes, or egrets.xtir herons, build their nests high in the topmost branches, above the I reach of man. The birds build the colonies for mutual protection against their common enemies—the falcons and crows —and depend on the inaccessible position of their nests as a protection against their arch-enemy—man. But, alas! far-reaching as are the means given by Nature to her children for their salvation, they are powerless against the onslaughts of the human foe, when he comes out against them armed with a gun. In the shooting of quail and pigeons and other birds, man always has the extenuating cry of sport, and the birds have generally at least a fighting chance; but for the white cranes there is no chance at all—they am simply butchered while sitting on their nests.

They are such exceedingly shy birds that, as a rule, they disappear at the approach of man; but at nesting-time it is different. Then the mother instinct is stronger thanthe sense of selfprotection, and the female bird, who alone possesses the coveted plumes, will not desert her offspring. The witeness of her plumage maker, her an easy mark, and even the height of her nest does not put her beyond gun range. And so man, the butcher, comes, and, taking advantage of the divine mother instinct, which of all things should be her greatest protection, shoots her as she sits upon her brood. Killed or wounded, she falls into the swamp beneath; the desired feathers are plucked ouot, and the body is thrown carelessly into the water. And thcer, in the nest above, the baby birds wait and wait for the mother who never returns. When the pangs of starvation oeverome them, they cry hungrily to any passing herons to feed them. But the mothers who have escaped the butchers are all too busy in feeding their own offspring—for the male bird takes no all in the rearing of the family—and so the poor orphans cry in vain. Sometimes a nestling, if large enough, will flutter out of the nest in the endeavour to find food for itself. But its young wings are not/sofficiently strong for the effort, and it falls into the swamp below, there to be quickly drowned. Yet its fate is merciful in comparison to that of its brothers left in the nest, for drowning is swift and sure, but starvation is slow and lingering, and cruel, cruel are the days that pass before the (suffering nestlings And peace in death.

And it is not once or twice that this thing happens, but every year. Each spring the same cruel traegdy is played; each spring the numlior of nests in the heronry gows less, and the only comfort left to the bird-lover is that "it cannot last for ever. With such an annual slaughter of young and old, the family must soon be exterminated, and one of the most beautiful of our birds will It extinct. Then—and is it only then? —woman's head will no longer be defiled by the pinnies of the victims.