Letters, Extracts, Notices, fyc. 311 



better protection of the breeding-places of our rarer birds ; 

 the extension of " Bird-and-Tree-day " competitions ; and the 

 further exposure of the " artificial-osprey-fraud " and the 

 protest against bird-trimmed ladies' hats. With the first and 

 last we shall all thoroughly agree, but we are not quite sure 

 that the Bird-and-Tree-day movement may not be carried 

 to excess in some directions, unless great care be taken. 



As regards the so-called " artificial ospreys," it is satis- 

 factory to know that there can no longer be any doubt as 

 to their real origin. A number of these alleged artefacts, 

 purchased in some of the leading milliners' shops and sub- 

 mitted to experts, have been pronounced to be in every case 

 (whether priced at 21s. or 3%d.) entirely composed of the 

 breeding-plumes of birds of the Heron-family. 



The Committee have decided to apply to the Privy Council 

 for a Charter of Corporation, which will, no doubt, be granted 

 to the Society in due course. 



Obituary. — Mr. J. S. Buugett and Mr. W. G. Doggett. 



John Samuel Budgett, M.A., of Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge, Balfour Student of the University, who died at 

 Cambridge on the 19th of February last, at the early age of 

 31 years, from fever contracted in the Niger-Delta, was a 

 promising zoologist of the best type, being equally good at 

 work in the museum and in the field. Before he attained 

 final success in the acquisition of materials for the study of 

 the development of the fishes of the genus Polypterus (which 

 he had set before himself as a special piece of work) Budgett 

 had visited some of the least healthy spots in tropical Africa 

 four times, and up to his last journey had escaped unscathed. 

 Budgett was not specially an ornithologist, but he was a 

 careful observer and knew the West-African ornis well. In 

 this Journal for 1901 (p. 481) will be found an excellent 

 article on the Birds of the Gambia, which, so far as we 

 know, was his only published contribution to our branch of 

 zoology. 



