68 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



PROFESSOR NEWTON. 



Professor Newton, whose death at Magdalene 

 College, Cambridge, on June 7th, 1907, is widely 

 regretted by scientific fellow-workers and private 

 friends, was one of the oldest advocates of Bird 

 Protection in this country, and one of the very 

 earliest and staunchest supporters of the Society 

 for the Protection of Birds. For many years 

 Chairman of the Bird Protection Committee of the 

 British Association, he gave at the Association's 

 annual meeting in 1868, the now historical address, 

 which called attention to the slaughter of sea-birds 

 for women's hats, and which may be said to have 

 started the anti-plumage campaign that ultimately 

 led to the formation of the Society. While the 

 Society was still a small organization of ladies, 

 without subscriptions or funds, it was from Professor 

 Newton that its first guinea came ; and he never 

 ceased to evince a deep interest in its progress. 

 He took up the question of the Egrets and Herons 

 with no less earnestness than that of the Kittiwakes 

 and Terns, protesting in the Times and elsewhere 

 against the appalling destruction of these birds for 

 millinery.t 



In the '■ Dictionary of Birds " he referred to this 

 matter under the heading " Extermination," and 

 wrote (words which unhappily are still true to-day) : 

 "All efforts to awaken the conscience of those who 

 tacitly encourage this detestable devastation, and 

 thereby share in its guilt, have hitherto failed ; 

 and unless laws to stop it be not only passed but 

 enforced it will go on until it ceases for want of 

 victims." 



Professor Newton may also be regarded as the 

 father of our Wild Bird Protection legislation, as 

 the address alluded to resulted in the passing of 

 the first of these measures, the Sea-Birds' Preser- 

 vation Act, in 1869. 



Professor Newton was elected to the Chair of 

 Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Cambridge 

 in 1866, and his general scientific and literary 

 work has greatly advanced the study of zoology in 

 the University and in the nation. Birds, however, 

 were always his favourite branch of the subject, 

 and his name will, as the Times observes, be most 

 closely associated with his comprehensive work — 

 " A Dictionary of Birds." Some of the larger 

 articles in the " Dictionary," for instance, those on 

 geographical distribution and migration (two lines 



* "The Zoological Aspect of Game Laws," R.S.P.B. leaflet 

 No. 13. 



+ "The Plume Trade: Letters to the Times," R.S.P.B. 



leaflet No. 31. 



of study especially his own), and on the history 

 of ornithology, are now universally considered 

 classical essays. His other writings include 

 the " Ornithology of Iceland," " The Birds of 

 Greenland," and the " Ootheca Wolleyana." 



FEATHERED MILLINERY. 



Considerable use is being made of aigrettes 

 composed of grasses for the trimming of smart 

 hats this summer. They are worn both upright 

 and as trails, and at a little distance bear some 

 resemblance to aigrettes formed of Egret plumage. 

 Near at hand it is easy to see that they consist 

 of innocent vegetable products, and no woman 

 could possibly mistake them for Egret " ospreys." 

 They cannot, therefore, be regarded as "artificial" 

 or " imitation " ospreys, but must be recognized as 

 an honest and pretty ornament distinct from all 

 feather trophies ; and it will require a milliner of 

 even more than the usual hardihood to attempt to 

 sell ospreys as "the new grass plume." 



The Audubon workers of the United States have 

 just won a legal battle in Louisiana which it is 

 believed has established a precedent upon which 

 milliners in all but eight of the States may be 

 fined for the sale or possession of the plumes of 

 the Herons and Egrets of Florida. Judge 

 Chretien of the First City Criminal Court of New 

 Orleans sentenced a millinery store proprietor to 

 a fine of fifty dollars or thirty days' imprisonment 

 for this offence, adding that the remote feeding- 

 grounds of the birds made it impossible to detect 

 persons committing cruelty, and to meet the case 

 sellers and wearers would be held responsible. 

 The case was taken to the Supreme Court, which 

 has affirmed the decision, holding that the 

 prohibition of the statute being against the killing 

 of non-game birds, the act of buying them is 

 included, for "the principal cause for killing is the 

 consideration received for the killing." " Those 

 who buy the plumes of the birds must be held to 

 know that by buying they hold out inducement 

 to hunt them and shoot them." This is just the 

 point on which it seems impossible to convince the 

 average woman when an attempt is made to con- 

 vince her of her responsibility for the iniquities of 

 the plume trade. The Audubon Societies intend 

 to follow up this judgment with prosecution of 

 offending milliners in every State where their 

 "model law" is in force. In England the 

 possibilities of legislation are infinitely complicated 



