A Great Crested Grebe, in breeding plumage, showing the lovely feathers on his head. These nearly proved to be their undoing. The birds were nearly exterminated in the 1880s, due to the use of these feathers, for hats and fashion. Huge numbers of other species were also being killed.
In 1889, Emily Williamson, from Didsbury, Manchester, formed the Plumage League, as a protest group to campaign against the use of Great Crested Grebe and Kittiwake skins and feathers by the fashion trade. From this very small start, this group, developed into what we now know as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
