THE BLUE JAY 113 



being all the plumes of the various egrets and small 

 eastern herons, with a few of the common heron (A. 

 cinera). Of birds of paradise from New Guinea, there 

 were 3255, chiefly P. apoda ; of Impeyan pheasants 

 from the Himalayas, 648 ; of Indian rollers (blue jays) 

 no fewer than 3913, with also a large number of East 

 Indian pigeons (wings), and pittas, Indian owls, parrots, 

 and jungle cocks. One firm catalogued 469 Chinese 

 mandarin ducks. The remainder of the birds were 

 mostly from America, comprising 52,628 humming 

 birds, and numerous cardinals, tanagers, trogans, 

 toucans, parrots, etc. There were also a large quantity 

 of wing quills from pelicans, swans, geese, turkeys, and 

 eagles." 



At the June sale ten cases of peacock-feathers were 

 sold, each case containing about 100 lb. of feathers. 

 Thanks to the efforts made by the Society for the 

 Protection of Birds, of which the Honorary Secretary 

 for India is Mr. W. Jesse, F.Z.S., Meerut, United Pro- 

 vinces, many ladies now have scruples about wearing in 

 their hats the corpses of little birds. 



As an antidote to this, the " Trade " has started the 

 fiction that " ospreys " are now manufactured artificially. 



This has been more than once " shown up." It is 

 not possible to manufacture such artificial plumes, and 

 I hope that no statements to the contrary made by the 

 feather trade will delude any lady into thinking the 

 contrary. 



But we must return to our blue jay, who, as we have 

 seen, is no jay at all ; nor is he nearly related to the jay 

 family. The rollers constitute a curious little clan, 

 I 



