Jl-NE, 1904.] 



KNOWLEDGE .'t SCIENTIFIC NEWvS. 



129 



Hut let It bo (Jistiiutiy uiulerstooi.1 that the assertion of 

 the retail milliners, that the plumes sold hy them as arti- 

 ficial are made of quills split up, or of whalebone, or of 

 any other material, are absolutely fiilsr. 



The broad facts concerning " Osprey " or " aigrette " 

 plumes and their origin are briefly these. The " aig- 

 rettes '" of the milliner are the long, loose, waving plumes 

 taken from the backs of different species of small 1 leroTis, 

 the white plumaged species, some ten in number, being 

 the most \alued. The finest kinds are ttiose from the 

 Little Egret, Garzetta garzetia, and the Black-footed 

 Egret, Garzetta iiigripes. In both species the plumage is 

 pure white, and the long " train" feathers are of a pecu- 

 liarly loose, flowing type, of great delicacy, and recurved 

 at the tip. It is this latter peculiarity that gives them 

 the peculiar value. The little ICgret occurs in Southern 

 Europe, China, and Japan, S. I!urma, India, Ceylon, 

 Malay .\rchipelago, and Africa. 



Fig. I.- Three plumes of a whte E^rct. G:ir:c:lJ i;nrr.,tl:i, used for the 

 purpose if making "ospreys" or "aigrettes." Note the extreme 

 length and slenderness of the "barbs" or thrcad = Iike branches of 

 the feather. 



The black-footed species has a more restricted distri- 

 bution, being found only in Java, the Molluccas, and 

 Australia. 



A third species, Leucophoyx candidissima, also produces 

 recurved plumes, but these are not so fine as in the 

 two just enumerated. This bird occurs in temperate and 

 tropical America. 



In all the species on which this war is waged, some 16 

 or 17 in number, these feathers are of great length. In 

 some — e.g., Mesophoyx intermedius — they may attain a 

 length of 17 inches. From a bundle of such, as many as 

 four separate plumes could be cut. The delicate ter- 

 minal portions of the feathers furnish the " genuine 

 Osprey " of the wholesale trade, and fetch a high price ; 

 whilst the three lower segments are sold as " artificials " 

 often at a ridiculously low price — so low that it has often 

 been contended that they could not on that account be 

 real feathers. But the tips pay for the whole bundle and 

 leave a profit ; the lower portions of the feather, there- 

 fore, may well be sold cheap. 



Besides the w'hite Herons — some ten species in all — 



llutic aie MjMUil others laid under contribution. These 

 birds are of varied colours, and the plumes are sold as 

 " red " or " ash " Ospreys, and so on, as the case may be. 

 But "artificials" are manufactured, in a sense, by 

 manipulating the feathers of birds other than Herons, so 

 as to produce what is at best a crude resemblance to the 

 real plume. Probably the majority of these are made of 

 what are known in the trade as " Vultures' " feathers, 

 which are really the quill or " fiiglU" feathers of the 1\ hea or 

 South American Ostrich. The method of preparing them 

 is interesting. The shaft of the fjuill is split down the 

 centre, so that one half of the "vane" of the feather 

 adheres to each half of the stem (fig. 3). By spirally 

 twisting this stem (fig. 4), the barbs forming the right or 

 left side of the " vane " of the feather are made to form 

 a series of long, slender filaments spirally arranged 

 around a central shaft. The efTcct produced, though 

 graceful, is really quite difTerent to that of the " Osprey" 

 (fig. i). Moreover, tlie whole plume is hea\ier in 

 appearance. I'eathers so treated are sold as artificial, 

 and there is enough truth in the statement to be really 



Fi^. 2.— An osprey plume as sold at the milliners. In this case the 

 plume has been dyed black. It is made up of two portions— a few 

 valuable tips stuck into a bunch of stumps— i.e., "ligret" plumes, 

 from which the tips have been removed. 



dangerous — dangerous inasmuch as whether sold as 

 artificial " Ospreys " or as " Vultures' " plumes, the 

 slaughter of Kheas is encouraged. Indeed, theextinction 

 of this bird, in a wild state, seems to be rapidly approach- 

 ing. Annually slain by thousands for the sake of its 

 feathers, this Rhea has already been extirpated from 

 much of country it formerly inhabited. That this 

 should be so is deplorable, for the Rhea is a bird of the 

 utmost scientific interest and importance. 



An equally crude imitation of the real " Osprey " is 

 made by treating Peacocks' feathers in the same way as 

 that just described in the case of the Rhea. 



But obviously the stump ends of real Egret feathers, 

 or the split and spirally twisted feathers of the Rhea and 

 Peacock, cannot he called artificial feathers. But what is 

 one to do ? some of my readers may ask. How can the 

 Egret feathers be distinguished from those of the Rhea 

 or Peacock ? Do not try. Firstly, this is the work of 

 an expert ; secondly, the sale of the imitation " Osprey " 

 does but encourage the slaughter of another species. If 

 the Egret is spared, the Rhea must die. 



