124 



THE OSPKEY. 



THE OSPREY. 



All Illustrated Matjazine of Popular Uruitliology. 



Published Monthly. 



By 



THE OSPREY COMPANY. 



Edited by Theodore Gill in collaboration with Robert 

 RidRWiiy. LeonhardSiejneger. Frederic A. Lucas, Charles 

 W. Richmond. Paul Bartsch, William Palmer and Harry 

 C. Oberholser of Washington, and Witmer Stoueof Phila- 

 delphia. 



• Contributions of a relevant nature are respectfully soli- 

 cited, and should be addressed to The O.spbey Company. 

 3-n-3-23 W2 Street N. W.. Washington, D. C. 



Subscription : In the United States. Canada and Mexico, 

 One Dollar a year, in advance. Single Copies. Ten Cents. 



Foreign Subscription: One Dollar aad Twenty-five Cents. 

 Postage paid to all countries in the Postal Union. 

 Advertising rates sent on request. 



Entered as secoad-class matter, by The Ospkey Com- 

 pany at the Washington. D. C. Post Office. 



Vol. IV. APRIL, 1900. No. 8. 



Comments. 



HOW TWO LION.S STOPPED THE BUIIvDING OF AN 

 AFRICAN RAII.KOAD. 



The Ospkey has restricted its range of late to 

 ornithologj', but in the past frequentU' admitted 

 articles of a more g'eneral cliaracter. A recent 

 episode of extreme interest to the naturalist as 

 well as other readers, including the special orni- 

 thologist, appears to justify the insertion of an 

 article on a mammalog-ical topic. It records the 

 arrest or retardation for some months of the 

 building of a railroad in equatorial Africa 

 (Uganda) in the valley of the Tsavos river about 

 100 miles from the Zanzibar coast. We reprint 

 the article from T/ie Spectator of London. 



BIKDS AND WOMEN. 



We have received a number of communications 

 respecting the slaughter of birds for their phnn- 

 age and publish, by request, two of them in the 



present number of the OsprEY. We dottbt, 

 however, the efficacy of laws passed for the 

 protection of birds when those laws are not 

 charged with the means as well as other pro- 

 visions for their enforcement. If the demand 

 exists for anything, that demand will be sup- 

 plied if it can be done with a profit. Sentiment 

 has little influence on the barbarians who seek 

 to add to their gains by wholesale slaughter of 

 birds. The right course is to educate those whose 

 desires are to be gratified only by such slaughter. 



And what a commentary such a desire is on 

 boasted civilization of our century! Now it i.s 

 only one sex among the civilized that is actuated 

 by that desire. Formerly it was different. 

 Even now the "gentle sex" is rivalled among 

 savage tribes. Once in a while we may see in 

 Washing'ton, among a delegation from some yet 

 untamed Indian horde, men with feathers stuck 

 in the head-gear. The incongruity is striking. 

 But why is there greater incongruity between 

 the head-dress of a woman and the wearer? 

 Custom has familiarized us with the sight, and 

 therefore our attention is enervated. But in 

 the future — possibly very distant — the woman 

 as well as man of that time will read with 

 amu.sement of the head-dress of the w^oman of 

 the past. Man has renounced the toggery of 

 his savage day^s, but dear woman (God bless 

 her!) still clings to part of it. 



How long will the habit of wearing feathers 

 stuck in the hat last? None can tell. But if 

 the educated woman would exercise her prerog- 

 ative and think for herself instead of allowing 

 herself to be influenced by the ignorant milliner 

 of barbaric taste, the coming of the good time 

 might be hastened. If even the children that 

 are to be developed into milliners could be in- 

 structed in the principles of esthetics, the time 

 might also be accelerated. 



Many men — if not most — certainly think that 

 adornment of the head-gear with flowers is 

 much more beautiful and becoming than a 

 feather-decked hat. Why not wear such then? 

 If show of wealth is an object, such a bonnet 

 can be made to cost — and show the cost — as well 

 as another! 



