unprotected birds of the world.

Let us run through a small portion of the mass of fresh evidence before
us. It will be easier for the friends of birds to read these details
here than to procure them at first hand, as we have done.

The first thing that strikes one is the fact that the feather-hunters
are scattered _all over the world where bird life is plentiful_ and
there are no laws to hinder their work. I commend to every friend of
birds this list of the species whose plumage is to-day being bought and
sold in large quantities every year in London. To the birds of the world
this list is of deadly import, for it spells extermination.

The reader will notice that it is the way of the millinery octopus to
reach out to the uttermost ends of the earth, and take everything that
it can use. From the trackless jungles of New Guinea, round the world
both ways to the snow-capped peaks of the Andes, no unprotected bird is
safe. The humming-birds of Brazil, the egrets of the world at large, the
rare birds of paradise, the toucan, the eagle, the condor and the emu,
all are being _exterminated_ to swell the annual profits of the
millinery trade. The case is _far_ more serious than the world at large
knows, or even suspects. But for the profits, the birds would be safe;
and no unprotected wild species can long escape the hounds of Commerce.

But behold the list of rare, curious and beautiful birds that are today
in grave peril:

[Illustration: BEAUTIFUL AND CURIOUS BIRDS NOW BEING DESTROYED
FOR THE FEATHER TRADE--(II)
Lyre Bird