Punch (102.1892)

Mat 14, 1892.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

231

A BIRD OF PREY.

[Despite the laudable endeavours of " The Society for the Protection of
Birds," the harpy Fashion appears still, and even increasingly, to make
endless holocausts of small fowl for the furnishing forth of " feather trim-
mings " for the fair sex. We are told that to obtain the delicate and
beautiful spiral plume called the " Osprey," the old birds "are killed oif
in scores, 'while employed in feeding their young, who are left to starve to
death in their nests by hundreds. Their dying cries are described as " heart-
rending." But they evidently do not rend the hearts of our fashionable

ladies, or induce them to rend their much-beplumed garments. Thirty
thousand black partridges have been killed in certain Indian provinces in a
few days' time to supply the European demand for their skins. One dealer
in London is said to have received, as a single consignment, 32,000 dead
humming-birds, 80,000 aquatic birds, and 800,000 pairs of wings. We are
told too that often " after the birds are shot down, the wings are wrenched off
during life, and the mangled bird is left to die slowly of wounds, thirst,
and starvation."]