When children learn to prefer to take a "snap-shot" at a bird
with a camera, rather than with a gun, they will protect these
feathered friends for their beauty, even if they do not regard them for
their usefulness.
Nature has supplied a system of balances if left to itself. Some forms
of insect life are so prolific that but for the voracity and industry
of the birds the world would become almost uninhabitable.
Bird life appeals to the eye for its beauty, to the ear for its music,
and to the interest of man for its utility. Shooting-clubs have
foreseen the extermination that awaits many of the finest of the game
birds, and are taking much pains to enforce the laws enacted for game
protection. A selfish interest thus is called into activity, and one
class of birds is receiving protection through the aid of its own
enemies.
But the birds of beautiful plumage are now threatened with extinction
by the desire of womankind for personal decoration. Against this
destruction Audubon societies are organizing a crusade, and Mrs.
Patterson's principal purpose in this book is to direct attention to
the wholesale slaughter of the birds of plumage and song.
The Princess of Wales was requested to write in an album her various
peculiarities. Among the inquiries was: "What is your greatest
weakness?" She answered: "Millinery.
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