Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/244

186, both in societies and Parliament, are largely backed by the economic issue, and many, who are influenced purely by æsthetic stimuli, make use of the economic argument; for that they know will appeal when their own desires tail to attract. The bird protector, however, is fully alive to the value of the æsthetic argument in certain circles, and gains much support from the sympathy and purses of ladies and others who are mainly concerned with "the poor, pretty little birds." From the purely æsthetic side there is much to be said in favour of maintaining all birds of bright plumage or pleasant voice, and there is, perhaps, nothing else which will combat that depraved commercial spirit which fosters the pseudo-love of the beautiful in the head-gear of unthinking woman—a survival of barbarity. When it is a question of the plumage trade, use the æsthetic argument for all it is worth.

The third argument, which may be called for want of a more descriptive title the Humanitarian argument, appeals most strongly against the cruelty of destruction. There is sound good sense in it, too, but it is often marred by a strange lack of balance. Men and women who sicken at the sight of pain in animals they admire will ruthlessly inflict it upon those they class as vermin or merely consider ugly. Here again, where there is cruelty in destruction, it is safe and right to use the humanitarian argument for all that it is worth, but we must avoid faddism; the massacre of the plume-bearing herons for the "ospreys" of commerce entails the slow torture and starvation of young birds as well as the cruel death of the parents, and this gruesome fact has, when pointed out by reasonable advocates, influenced many tender-hearted women to deny themselves the ornaments they coveted.

The last and least popular argument is the Scientific, or, to put it in other words, the argument for scientific reasons. It is, apart from economic arguments, most