Birds Illustrated by Color Photography, Vol 3. No 6, June 1898

ONE AUDUBON SOCIETY

FIVE hundred invitations were sent out for a novel reception by the Wisconsin Audubon Society a while ago. One of the directors lent a large, handsome house, and six milliners were invited to send hats unadorned with aigrettes or birds. Ostrich plumes, quills and cock's-tails were not disbarred. Twenty-five other milliners applied for space, "everybody" went, and a great many tastefully trimmed hats were sold. People who had never before heard of the Audubon Society became, through the newspaper reports of the affair, greatly interested in its object, and the society itself greatly encouraged through the fact that by their hats and bonnets many of the "best" people of Milwaukee were ready to proclaim it no longer good form to wear the plumes or bodies of wild birds.

"Certificates of heartlessness," a writer in Our Dumb Animals calls them and we know of no better appellation to apply. Women of fashion, says the same writer, have been urged to use the power which they possess – and it is a power greater than that of law – to bring this inhumanity to an instant stop. The appeals for the most part were in vain. Birds continue to be slaughtered by millions upon millions, simply for the gratification of a silly vanity of which intelligent women should be ashamed. Whole species of the most beautiful denizens of field and forest, woodland and shore, have been almost or quite exterminated. Song birds have been driven further and further from the dwellings of men; our country is stripped of one of its least costly and most charming delights and all that women may deck themselves in conformity with a fad.

A bill for the protection of birds was passed on March 24, by the Senate of the United States, introduced into the House of Representatives on March 25, and referred to the Committee on Agriculture. It is entitled "An Act for the Protection of Song Birds."

We confess, says the same writer, to a feeling of humiliation when reading this bill, because it seems a just indictment of the women of America on a charge of willful, wanton, reckless inhumanity. That such legislation should be made necessary, through vanity alone, ought in our estimation, to bring the blush of shame to every good woman's cheek.

"I didn't think," is the usual reply of the fair sex, when approached on the subject. "I didn't think." Aye you didn't think, but that plea can no longer avail when press and pulpit, in the name of humanity, so earnestly and eloquently plead with you to spare the birds.

If compassion for the little creature whose life went out in agony, to supply that ornament above your brow does not move you to abstain from wearing such in the future, then the knowledge that some of the "best" people in the country consider it "bad form," perhaps will.

– E. K. M.The lady has surely a beautiful face,She has surely a queenly air;The bonnet had flowers and ribbon and lace;But the bird has added the crowning grace —It is really a charming affair.Is the love of a bonnet supreme over all,In a lady so faultlessly fair?The Father takes heed when the Sparrows fall,He hears when the starving nestlings call —Can a tender woman not care?– Susan E. Gammons, Our Dumb Animals.

THE YOUTH OF BUDDHA

From "The Light of Asia."… In mid-play the boy would oft-times pause,Letting the deer pass free; would oft-times yieldHis half-won race because the laboring steedsFetched painful breath; or if his princely matesSaddened to lose, or if some wistful dreamSwept o'er his thoughts. And ever with the yearsWaxed this compassionateness of our Lord,Even as a great tree grows from two soft leavesTo spread its shades afar; but hardly yetKnew the young child of sorrow, pain, or tears,Save as strange names for things not felt by kings,Nor ever to be felt. But it befellIn the royal garden on a day of spring,A flock of wild Swans passed, voyaging northTo their nest-places on Himâla's breast.Calling in love-notes down their snowy lineThe bright birds flew, by fond love piloted;And Devadatta, cousin of the prince,Pointed his bow, and loosed a willful shaftWhich found the wide wing of the foremost SwanBroad-spread to glide upon the free blue road,So that it fell, the bitter arrow fixed,Bright scarlet blood-gouts staining the pure plumes.Which seeing, Prince Siddârtha took the birdTenderly up, rested it in his lap —Sitting with knees crossed, as Lord Buddha sits —And, soothing with a touch the wild thing's fright,Composed its ruffled vans, calmed its quick heart,Caressed it into peace with light kind palmsAs soft as plantain leaves an hour unrolled;And while the left hand held, the right hand drewThe cruel steel forth from the wound, and laidCool leaves and healing honey on the smart.

SUMMARY

Page 206.

BRUNNICH'S MURRE.—Uria lomvia.

Range – Coasts and islands of the north Atlantic and eastern Arctic oceans, south on the Atlantic coast of North America to New Jersey.

Nest – On the bare rock, often on the narrow shelves of cliffs.

Eggs – One.

Page 210.

CANADA GOOSE.—Branta canadensis. Other names: "Common Wild Goose," "Grey Goose," "Honker."

Range – North America at large.

Nest – Of dried grasses, raised about twelve inches from the ground; has been found in trees.

Eggs – Generally five, of a pale dull greenish color.

Page 214.

BROWN CREEPER.—Certhia familiaris americana.

Range – Eastern North America, breeding from northern border of United States northward.

Nest – In holes of trees lined with dry grass, moss, and feathers.

Eggs – Five to eight.

Page 218.

DOWNY WOODPECKER.—Dryobates pubescens. Other name: "Little or Lesser Sapsucker." This, however, is a misnomer.

Range – Northern and eastern North America, and sporadically the western portions – Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, etc.

Nest – In an excavation in a tree.

Eggs – Four or five, rarely six, pure glossy white.

Page 223.

OLD SQUAW DUCK.—Clangula hyemalis. Other names: South Southerly; Long-tailed Duck; Swallow-tailed Duck; Old Injun (Mass. and Conn.) Old Molly; Old Billy; Scolder (New Hampshire and Massachusetts.)

Range – Northern hemisphere; south in winter to nearly the southern border of the United States.

Nest – On the margins of lakes and ponds, among low bushes or low grass, warmly lined with down and feathers.

Eggs – From six to twelve, of pale, dull grayish pea-green.

Page 227.

WHITE-FACED GLOSSY IBIS.—Plegadis autumnalis.

Range – Tropical and sub-tropical regions generally; rare and of local distribution in the southeastern United States and West Indies.

Nest – Of rushes, plant stems, etc., in reedy swamps on low bushes.

Eggs – Three, rather deep, dull blue.

Page 231.

ARKANSAS KINGBIRD.—Tyrannus verticalis. Other name: Arkansas Flycatcher.

Range – Western United States from the plains to the Pacific, and from British Columbia south through Lower California and western Mexico to Guatemala.

Nest – On branches of trees, in open and exposed situations, six to twenty feet from the ground; built of stems of weeds and grasses.

Eggs – Three to six, white, thinly spotted with purple to dark redish-brown.