Birds That Go On Hats - An Explanation

A great heap of wide-spread antlers in the window, with a simple black and white sign above them which reads, "Taxidermist," is the only street display of a down town place of business where hundreds of thousands of birds have been flayed and their skins dressed for the ornamenting of hats and bonnets, and hundreds of hides of all sorts of animals, from a mouse to a cinnamon bear or an African tiger, have been mounted for the use of dealers in furs and the decoration of parlors and studies. The chief part of this business is the preparation of birds for milliners. A pretty black-eyed girl behind the counter in the front room said that the business was not very brisk in winter, but with the coming of the birds in spring it would become very lively.

"What kind of birds do you use most?"

"The common sorts — red-winged blackbirds, reed birds, snipes, turtle doves, orioles, yellow birds, thrushes. Any small bird can be used."

"How do you get them?"

"We buy them from men who make a business of supplying us. Most of the birds we handle are from New Jersey, but a good many come from Long Island, and we receive some from the West and South. A few are imported.

"What do you pay for them?"

"That depends on the fashions entirely. Two years ago the demands of the milliners was for red wings and yellow birds. We paid from twenty-five to thirty-five cents apiece, and at one time we had to pay as high as forty-seven cents apiece for a lot. Last year we got all we wanted at from seven to eight cents each. When the hunters have to supply a brisk demand, they can get more, of course, because the supply of birds of each variety does not vary greatly from year to year."

"Do the hunters shoot the birds?"

"I guess not, I do not find any shot in flaying those brought from regular customers."

"How do they catch them then?"

"I guess you could not get them to tell you. There is one man who brings us from 1,500 to 2,000 a week during the warm months. He says he has a partner and no other help. He lives in Red Bank. One would think the woods would be depopulated, or else that he would get rich enough to retire, but he has been working away for years now."

"Where do all these fancy birds that look like pictures of tropical rarities come from?"

"All from Jersey. By inserting a snipe's bill in the place of the bill of a crow blackbird, and then combining parts of the skins of other common birds we produce a monstrosity, but if the colors are well matched the result is attractive to the common eye, however grotesque it may appear to one who knows all about the appearance of birds. It is not uncommon to see in the Grand street windows hats that have half a dozen heads projecting from one mass of feathers that might be the breast of a swan or the pickings from a second hand pillow. The wings that adorn some hats are about as much like wings as a stove pipe is like a lead pencil. But those queer tastes are the making of our business. The portions of the bird's skin which are cut away when mounting a bird naturally for a hat can all be used up in wings by gluing them on a model. I read in The Sun the other day about an Ohio young woman whose nerves were wholly shattered in a millinery store because, as the article said, of her sympathy for the poor little birds she had to handle. I guess there was some error about that. I think the shock must have come a contemplation of some of our combination birds. She has my sympathy."

February 19, 1885. Birds that go on hats. An explanation of some of the mysterious creations that are seen. New Market Church Paper 13(6): 4.

Fashionable Cruelty - Slaughter of Birds for Ladies' Hats

What Mr. Bergh Thinks of It

Walking up Broadway one fine afternoon lately, a Tribune reporter noticed an unusually large display of plumage on ladies' hats. He was the wings, plumes, heads and bills of red birds, yellow birds, robins and humming-birds and almost every variety of the feathered songster known, doing duty in adorning the headwear and trimmings of the enthusiastic devotees of fashion. In many instances the birds that looked so pretty on those jaunty hats were complete, and the stuffed songster looked as gay as in life. In the windows of a millinery store, frequented mainly by wealthy ladies of fashion, the reporter saw many hats thus decorated. With a hesitating stop he went in and was met by a stout dame, who wore on elaborate dress dotted with dead fire-flies. In life these fire-flies had undergone a squeezing process, which causes the phosphorus in them to exude and has the effect of making a brilliant costume.

The storekeeper informed the reporter that fire-flies are imported from warm countries, mainly the Indies, where they are preserved for market. She had them for sale. One of the large counters was almost entirely covered with stuffed birds and various parts of birds, trade to be placed on hats and trimmings, as the fancy or taste of the wearer might suggest.

"Are you not afraid of being arrested for cruelty?" asked the reporter.

"No, indeed! We import them," replied the woman, looking the reporter out of countenance. "They would not arrest a woman?" she asked or rather stated in the most assuring manner.

The reporter called on President Bergh, who said: "I have noticed lately that this cruel onslaught is increasing. There is a greater display of these little tortured creatures than ever before. I notice it in the fashionable stores to upper Broadway, in cheap 6th avenue, and down in 8th avenue. The wanton slaughter, flaying birds alive, and tearing feathers from their quivering bodies, is the most barbarous cruelty that can be practised. It is an insult to the civilization which we boast. The savages can do no more than that. If he does take a few feathers from a fowl, it is the pride of a warrior that prompts him, not a merciless vanity, and he is, therefore, more excusable that our more cultivated and refined people. The feathers are plucked from these living birds, and their limbs are torn from them while in the agonies of death, under the impression that if the feathers are cured while the blood is warm they have a fresher and more lasting tint.

"They may import a few," continued Mr. Bergh, "but the demand for birds has become so great of late that the Jersey farmers are now trapping pigeons and raising squabs for this market, to be sacrificed to cruel fashion whims. The squabs are killed when only a few weeks old and their plumage is fresh and bright. A stuffed squab sometimes looks more "cunning" on a hat than a full-fledged pigeon. Stuffed squirrels are also largely used. What is more ridiculous, and yet suggestive of insatiable vanity than to see a couple of squirrels on a woman's hat? These squirrels are brought over from Jersey and the Long Island bogs by boys who sell them at 15 or 20 cents each. The young squirrels are generally selected for this bloody sacrifice because of their desirable size. Cats were formerly used, but there was so much trouble in cutting their skins down to the proper size that kittens have been substituted.

"It seems that nothing — not even the most defenseless and prettiest of God's creatures — the birds of the air, can escape the merciless hands of fashion's slaves. Fashion has such an unlimited power that are women are not only dead to mercy, but ruin their own health and sacrifices their lives in following its arbitrary decrees. A few years ago, England, and even India, took steps to prevent the further slaughter of birds. But America has done practically nothing.

"If the wealthy ladies of fashion of this city should set the fashion at discountenancing this practice, a great deal would be accomplished. If the leaders of society would cease using ornament's that were obtained only through cruelty, there would soon be no demand for them. The prevention of this slaughter rests with the leaders of fashion more than with this society; for the work is done so secretly that we cannot traces the doers to their butcher shops or get even the slightest evidence. We see only the results of their cruelty. So poplar has this cruelty of plucking live animals become that live geese are picked under the impression that the feathers make a better bed than if they were plucked after the goose was killed."

December 10, 1884. Washington D.C. Evening Star 64(9867): 3. From the New York Tribune.

Cruel Fashion - Birds Skinned Alive

There is no lady deserving of the name who could witness without a feeling of horror the process of preparing for use the feathered beauties which form such conspicuous ornaments in the present style of women's hats. If those who wear such ornaments knew the tortures to which these helpless little creatures are subjected, and the heartless cruelty with which the business is carried on, they would shrink from even indirect complicity in it. Of course the impression prevails that all birds used for personal decoration are killed immediately when caught and prepared in the ordinary way by taxidermists; but here is just where the mistake is made. The birds are taken alive, and while living the skin is skillfully stripped from their quivering, ghastly bodies. By this process it is claimed the feathers retain a firmer hold upon the skin. Such is the method by which all birds used in the decoration of ladies' hats are prepared. Think of the exquisite humming bird, the blue bird, the cardinal bird, the oriole, and numberless others of beautiful plumage, struggling beneath the knife of the heartless operator; think of this, tender-hearted ladies, as your admiring gaze rests on the latest novelties in fashion by which our city belles are crowned! Hundreds of thousands of birds of the brightest plumage are literally flayed alive every year, and so long as our ladies will consent to wear such ornaments, just so long will this cruel business continue. The Baroness Burdett-Coutts has placed herself at the head of a movement in England designed to put an end to the brutal business, and it is to be hoped that she will meet with cordial encouragement and co operation on this side of the Atlantic.

May 16, 1876. A cruel fashion. Georgia Weekly Telegraph and Georgia Journal and Messenger 59(39): 5. From the New York Sun.

Fall Fashions - Pretty Things in Dress and Fixings

The Fall Fashions.

Pretty New Things in Dress and Feminine Fixings.

(From Harper's Bazar from this week.)

Bonnets.

Bonnets of regular shape, with strings, are provided by French milliners almost to the exclusion of round hats. The strings are not necessarily tied in front, but may be fastened behind or passed around the neck in the way talle is now done. There is a fancy for making the bonnets of a demi-season of velvet and silk, without flowers and feathers. This is a natural reaction after the profusion of flowers worn during the summer, and will not last after the gay winter season begins. There are other imported bonnets for autumn completely trimmed with bird's wings. Sometimes six wings are on each side of the bonnet. There are small wings of larks, starlings and blackbirds, and are sold in pairs, as the right and left wing must be placed in natural position. Still another capricious trim is wings a la Mercure — a pair of wings arranged at the back just as they are on Mercury's cap. Birds will also be much used for trimming. These are quite large birds, such as pigeons, the bird-of-the-isles, the lopophore, and various others with bronzed shaded plumage. French milliners poise those in most fantastic ways. Thus a large blue bird is placed low on the back of the bonnet with outspread wings, as if flying down; in his beak he catches up the long ribbon strings that are tied behind. Sometimes a gay pigeon nestles close against the right side of the bonnet; in others, only the head and breast of the pigeons are used; a bandeau is made of seven or eight tiny humming birds.

September 5, 1875. Columbus Sunday Enquirer 17(207): 4. From Harper's Bazaar from this week. Only a portion of the article is included.