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Rh all either killed or frightened away during the late sixties, when they ceased to be preserved as a royal bird. The pheasants have sadly diminished in number, owing to wholesale slaughter with the object of exporting their feathers to grace ladies' bonnets in foreign lands; and various species of small birds are now sharing the same fate, as many as a hundred thousand at a time being, it is said, shipped off that the tiny feathers may be dyed various colours and set to various uses in female adornment or art manufacture. Such are some of the drawbacks of foreign intercourse and of cheap and rapid transport. Europeanisation is not all gain. The European tourist seeks distant lands with intent to admire nature and art. But nature is laid waste for his sake or for the sake of his friends at home, while art is degraded and ultimately destroyed by the mere fact of contact with alien influences.