i888.] Nofcs and Xews. -> t C 



^[agpics ; o\cr i^,()n<) I luinniinghirds ; about 5000 Tanagcis; 6ocx) Blue 

 Creepers and 1500 oilier Creepers (i)r()bal)Iy fainilj Ccerebida-) ; several 

 hundred ctic/t of Hawks, Owls, Gulls, Terns, Ducks, Ibises, Finches, 

 Orioles, Larks, Toueans. Hirds ol" Paradise, etc.; several thousand each ol" 

 Wrens, Manakins, IJee-eaters, Kingfishers, Doves and Pigeons ;" 1493 

 Swallows," in one lot ; and about i J,cx)oare scheduled umler "Black I leads." 

 "Black and White," "Pink and Black." "Grev and Black," "Various," etc. 

 The number distinctly scheduled as skins reached nearly or quite loo.fKio, 

 while the nunilier i-epresented b\- the 16.000 or inore "packages," ami 

 "bundles," and the 3500 mats ami hand-screens must amount lo at least 

 as many more. 



As such sales are not of unfrecpient occurrence, and doubtless occur in 

 other large cities as well as in Lomion, the wonder is that the supph con- 

 tinues. The trafHc, if much longersustained, cannot fail to have a marked 

 effect in depopulating the countries supplying these sales of their bin! life. 

 What a bloody Moloch is fashion ! and how thoughtlessly otherwise intel- 

 ligent and tender-hearted women obey her behests! 



Since the above was written, the following has appeared in a recent num- 

 ber of the 'American Field,' which forms a fitting addendum to the forego- 

 ing: "Last year the trade in birds for women's hats was so enormous that a 

 single London dealer atlmitted that he had sold j. 000, ocx) of small birds of 

 every kind and color. At one auction in one week there were sold 6000 

 birds of paradise. 5000 Impeyan Pheasants, 400,000 Hummingbirds, ami 

 other birds from Nortii and South America, and 360,000 feathered skins 

 from India." 



We have been permitted to copy the following from a recent letter of 

 the late II. Pryer, which may be of interest to the readers of 'The .\uk" : 

 "I think I sent you my paper on the Borneo P2dible Birds'-nests .? All 

 the ornithologists and chemists have been down on me for saying that it 

 is composed of a peculiar sort of Alg-a which grows in damp places in the 

 caves at 300 to 400 feet elevation above the sea, but I have just received 

 news that I am perfectly right and every one else for the past seventy years 

 is wrong! The\' said the nest was maile of the bird's own saliva, but 

 Divers, who has analyzed the nest and algic, finds in the latter a very pecu- 

 liar gum, and that the nest is formed of this gum, mixed with the saliva o: 

 the biril. Divers was one of the strongest of my o[)ponents, but now he 

 tuuis I am right. I must say, however, that in the face of the weighty evi- 

 dence brought against me I began to doubt the evidence of my own senses, 

 although I was perfectly certain that a little pair of birds not bigger than 

 , the top joint of my thumb could not secrete several quarts of saliva three 

 times a year to build their nest with." 



Mr. C. B. Coky is still continuing his ornithological explorations in 

 the West Indies, he having recently sent Mr. E. B. Gallenger to the Grand 

 Bahama, while Mr. Clark P. Streator, formerly of California, has been 

 engaged for an extensive collecting tour in the hitherto neglected por- 

 tions of the Antilles. Mr. C J. Maynard has just returned from an 



