蜂鸟（5）

随着买蜂鸟皮的贸易增加，鸟类学者和野生动物活动家的抱怨也增长了。1912年，96位在华盛顿的美国参议院之中，每一个人都接到了邮报；里面有一片卡，在卡上贴了两枚硬币和蜂鸟的皮，还有一封信抗议每天在欧洲卖几万只“美国蜂鸟”，根据信，这些蜂鸟之间，许多是一只两币士之下卖了。在英国Emily Williamson成立羽毛协会，一个成员承诺不把羽毛放在帽子的女人协会。1889年羽毛协会变成了鸟类保护协会，成员都是女人。《笨拙》杂志讽刺协会的目的：“不是那么严肃的牺牲，对吗，姑娘们？” 但是，协会的抱负和决心只增强了。1904年，协会被授予皇家特许状，成为了RSPB（英国皇家鸟类保护协会）。

As the trade grew, so too did disquiet from ornithologists and wildlife campaigners. In 1912, all 96 US senators in Washington received a parcel; in it was a card to which were glued two one-cent coins and the skin of a hummingbird. It came with a letter protesting the sale each year in Europe of tens of thousands of ‘American Hummingbirds’, many of them, the letter said, for less than two cents apiece. In Britain, Emily Williamson founded the Plumage League, a society of women who pledged not to wear bird feathers on their hats, which in 1889 became the all-female Society for the Protection of Birds. Punch mocked its objective – ‘Not a very severe self-denying ordinance that, Ladies?’ – but it only grew in ambition and determination, and in 1904 was granted a Royal Charter to become the RSPB.