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Sarasota News Leader January 18, 2013 Page 73 VIRTUAL EXTINCTION AND THE At one point, it was not fashionable simply to adorn hats with feathers but with the whole NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY Which came first: the Great Egret or the Audubon Society? The answer seems obvious, but there is a trick to the question. The Great Egret would probably not exist today had it not been for the Audubon Society. stuffed bird, nest and eggs! I have included this week a photo of a cardinal and nest that would have adorned a workingwoman's hat. A society lady would sport a more expensive, exotic Golden Pheasant from China or a Paradise Tanager from Peru. The Industrial Revolution in the United States suddenly created a new social class with more wealth and leisure time than ever before. Members of this emergent class, as chronicled by American economist Torstein Veblen (18571929), indulged themselves in "conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure occupations," such as building themselves sumptuous homes; indulging in Lucullan dining, big game sport hunting and fishing; and paying slavish devotion to haute couture. It is not that this new leisure class was not interested in the natural world — quite the opposite, in fact. The study of natural history became wildly popular, and great naturalist scholars abounded — John J. Audubon, Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley and Leon Trotsky. I kid you not! In exile, and when the founder of the Red Army was not dodging assassins or "doing it" with Frida Kahlo, Trotsky let flourish his amateur scientific interest in ichthyology, which led him to identify a spe- This cardinal in its nest would have been coveted as a feature for a fancy woman's hat. File photo