40 



Sir Edwin Ray Lankester, interviewed by the " Daily News 5> in 

 1903, said : 



" An osprey has never been imitated, and, whatever the shop- 

 keeper may say, it is always the parent bird, slain at the breeding 

 season, which supplies women's hats and bonnets." 



The Society purchased from a score of West-end shops in 1903 

 specimens of " ospreys," which were sold and invoiced as " arti- 

 ficial " ; proved them to be Egret plumes, and published the 

 story of the he far and wide.* 



Mr. W. P. Pycraft, of the Natural History Museum, wrote in 

 " Knowledge," June, 1904 : 



" The statements that imitation or artificial ' ospreys ' are 

 made of split quills, whalebone, or other material, are all abso- 

 lutely false." 



No Answer. 



Did the trade, on being thus indicted, refute the charge by 

 sending specimens of the plumes they pretended to manufacture, 

 to Sir William Flower, to Professor Lankester, to Mr. Pycraft, 

 to the Society ? No. They merely continued to repeat the 

 " glaring falsehood " to ignorant ears. One instance may be 

 given. When Professor Lankester had spoken, the representative 

 of an evening newspaper interviewed some members of the trade. f 

 He was told that ospreys were made of cotton, of vultures, of 

 " a secret substance," and that over a thousand hands were 

 employed on the industry in London. The Society asked in the 

 columns of the same paper for the address of one factory where 

 such an industry was carried on. There was no answer. The 

 newspaper privately supplied the name of the firm responsible 

 for the statement, and the Society wrote to the firm. ' Your 

 letter," wrote the firm, in reply, " shall receive attention." 

 Needless to say, that was the only reply ever received. No other 

 reply could presumably be given when it was feared that investi- 

 gation would follow. 



* " The Biography of a Lie," R.S.P.B. Leaflet, No. 49. 

 |"St. James's Gazette," May, 1904. 



