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habits of the Heron tribe, and the methods of the hunter in shoot- 

 ing out the heronries at the nesting season wrote a further pro- 

 test to the " Times " (Oct. 17th), from the point of view of the 

 scientific ornithologist. The " Times," in its leading columns, 

 spoke perhaps more strongly than any " sentimentalist " has ever 

 done : 



" How long will women tolerate a fashion which involves 

 such wholesale, wanton, and hideous cruelty as this ? . . . . 

 If in every pulpit in the land this shocking story of the Egrets 

 were told, surely for once humanity would prove stronger 

 than fashion. . . . Let it be clearly understood, once for all, 

 that the feathered woman is a cruel woman, that for the sake 

 of a passing fashion, which pleases no rational being and 

 should disgust all who can think and feel and understand, she 

 brings dishonour upon her sex, and robs nature of its beauty 

 without adding to her own." 



Four years later Mr. Hudson wrote in the same journal against 

 the wearing, not only of " ospreys " but of all the brilliant birds 

 whose skins and feathers were " on view in the dusty desert of 

 the show-rooms in Houndsditch " ; and the " Times " again 

 devoted a leading article to the subject. 



Lord Lilford. 



Lord Lilford, President of the British Ornithologists' Union 

 from 1867 to 1896, took occasion to refer to the matter in Vol. VII. 

 of his " Birds ol the British Islands," in the chapter on the Great 

 White Heron : 



" Here it would seem appropriate to notice the wanton 

 destruction of this and many kindred species that has been 

 carried on all the world over for many years past, for no other 

 purpose than the supply of the dorsal plumes for the sup- 

 posed ornamentation of feminine and military headgear. 

 In * the trade ' these feathers are known as * osprey ' ; and 

 the thoughtless fashion for them has caused the almost entire 

 extinction of more than one species. I am delighted to 

 believe that in this country at least a very considerable check 



