2i6 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



friend Forbes remarks, that tlie woodpecker is a great bore. The 

 dyeing of birds is a very common practice and the plainer birds 

 can be fixed for market by dyeing them. Consequently when the 

 Doctor says — I quote "That our most desirable song birds, such as 

 thrushes, wrens, greenlets, and finches, are in limited demand on 

 account of their plain colors," his assumption that their generally 

 plain colors will exempt them from being used for trade is unfound- 

 ed, first because the birds can be dyed, and second, because they 

 are now used without dye, as is shown by the examinations before 

 given in one of which one woman wore 7 song birds (representing 

 4 species) and another the heads and wings of 3 shore-larks, and 

 another the wings of 7 shore-larks and grass finches. 



Since our last meeting, Prof. J. A. Allen one ot our most 

 careful and observant and accurate ornithologists, and now Curator 

 of the Department of Mammalogy and Ornithology of the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History, Central Park, New York City, 

 has written me the following : 



"Nkw York, June 8, 1S86." 

 "Mr. W. H. Fisher, 



Cincinnati, Ohio. 

 Dear Sir : 



Your letter and the newspaper clipping in relation to 

 Dr. Langdon's performance were a great surprise to me. I am 

 just now too much pressed by imperative duties to write at great 

 length on this subject. The Doctor, however, is entirely wrong in 

 his assumptions. The figures given in ' Science ' are not exagger- 

 ations; neither do these statistics relate to terns and herons merely. 

 Our song-birds are sacrificed for millinery purposes by the million 

 annually, and form a very large proportion of the birds lately worn 

 on hats. As an index of what goes on in this line, please note 

 Chapman's article on ' Birds and Bonnets' in Forest and Stream of 

 Feb. 25, 1886, and republished on the last page of our Bulletin. 

 Also, the statistics given of birds on hats seen in a New York 

 Horse car. These are actual facts, and show plainly enough 

 whether our native song-birds are used to any extent for hat deco- 

 ration. These are examples merely of what might have been seen 

 at any time in this city, up to a recent date. Takiiig the native 

 passeres and woodpeckers together, they more than twice outnum- 

 ber the birds of all other kinds worn on hats, including even all 

 those of foreign origin. Of this there is no (piestion. They are 



