THE ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING. XXvii. 



that it referred to the decoration of ladies' hats with the gay 

 plumage of birds, and asked his audience to consider what it 

 meant to the winged creation. With effective marshalling of 

 facts and figures, Captain Rickards dealt with his subject in such 

 a way as to hold the close attention of his hearers. In the 

 course of his remarks, Captain Rickards said that 



"Shop window after shop window in the fashionable streets of London and 

 other towns and cities was arrayed with most captivating temptations of ladies' 

 hats nearly all decorated with gaudy birds' feathers. There was, he believed, no 

 cruelty involved in the ingathering of the harvest of ostrich plumes any more 

 than there was in the shearing of the sheep ; but, if the mistress wore feathers, 

 then Mary Jane, the housemaid, and Polly, the cook, must wear feathers too, 

 and they could not afford such expensive ones. Captain Eickards gave some 

 startling statistics about the multitudes of birds of all kinds which are immolated 

 yearly to gratify feminine caprice and vanity. At one sale alone were seen 

 116,470 bundles of humming birds. The use of the aigrette in the full dress 

 busbies of the Hussars threatened the early extinction of the heron tribe until 

 her late Majesty the Queen, who was ever first to set a good example to her 

 subjects, forbade the further use of natural aigrettes. It was the enormous 

 demand of English ladies' hats that led to the swallow harvest, reaped chiefly in 

 France. Captain Rickards pointed out that the fruit harvest suffered seriously 

 from the wholesale destruction of birds, who were the natural enemies of insect 

 pests. He appealed to the ladies of Dorset not by thoughtless following of the 

 fashion to aid and abet in the destruction of the sweet .songsters and birds of 

 plumage, but rather to follow the example of the society which had been formed, 

 and to which many of the best dressed women of the land belonged, with the 

 object of discountenancing the wearing of feathers." 



The meeting ended at four o'clock. 



THE ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING was held on Monday, April 

 29th, 1901, in the Reading Room of the County Museum, the 

 President being in the chair and about 35 members and friends 

 present. 



NEW MEMBERS. The four candidates proposed at the last 

 meeting were balloted for and elected, and three were proposed. 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. The President delivered a learned 

 and interesting address on amphibia and reptiles, chiefly those 

 of the Palaeozoic period. At the close a vote of thanks was 



