ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 43 
rade—a high-grade fur is never offered under 
the name of a common or low cost peltry. 
“Misnaming is done to increase sales, secure 
larger profits than could be obtained in selling 
the fur under correct representation, to gain the 
reputation of dealing in goods of better quality 
than are actually handled, and definitely as an 
effective bait for catching gudgeons—snobs for 
whom nothing ready-made is good enough, and 
who proudly ‘give up’ an excess of twenty per 
cent over value for a garment ‘to order,’ and 
unwittingly receive a drummer’s sample slightly 
changed to fit; and others who are eager to emu- 
late the overdressed, and who would consider 
themselves grossly underrated if the tradesmen 
offered them a coat of rabbit fur for fifty dollars, 
but who cheerfully surrender one hundred and 
twenty-five dollars for the same garment when 
represented as French sable. 
“England has enacted a drastic law against 
this form of deception, and it is effectively en- 
forced through the Fur Trades’ Section of the 
Chamber of Commerce. In some parts of the 
United States laws governing the misnaming of 
articles offered for sale are upon the statute 
books, and a few convictions have been secured. 
There should be many.” 
In view of the foregoing testimony from a 
member of the fur trade, does it not seem quite 
time for the responsible fur dealers of the 
United States to clean house in the matter of 
misnaming furs? 
There are certain animals whose real names 
actually have disappeared from the nomencla- 
ture of the fur trade. The following are good 
examples: 
Coypu rat (Myopotamus coypus), always 
known as nutria. 
Red sable or Siberian mink (Mustela siberi- 
cus), always known as kolinsky. 
European polecat (Mustela putorius), always 
known as fitch. 
Koala (Phascolarctus 
known as wombat. 
Little striped skunk (Mephitis interrupta), 
always known as civet cat. 
Domestic cat (Felis Domestica), listed as 
genet. 
cinereus), always 
From the volume referred to above we quote 
the following list of misnamed furs as used by 
the fur trade of North America: 
American sable, sold as Russian sable. 
Fitch, dyed, sold as sable. 
Goat, dyed, sold as bear or monkey. 
Hare, dyed, sold as fox, lynx or sable. 
Kid, sold as lamb or broadtail. 
Marmot, blended, sold as mink or sable. 
Mink, blended, sold as sable, and unhaired 
and dyed, sold as seal. 
Muskrat, unhaired and dyed, sold as mink, 
electric seal, Hudson seal, Red River 
seal, and many other kinds of seal, none 
of which exist. 
Muskrat, sheared, sold as mole. 
Nutria, unhaired and dyed, sold as beaver, 
seal, electric seal and Hudson seal. 
Otter, unhaired and dyed, sold as real fur seal 
and electric seal. 
Raccoon, dyed, sold as lynx. 
Rabbit, dyed, sold as sable or French sable; 
unhaired and dyed, sold as electric seal 
and sundry other seals not found on land 
or sea. 
White rabbit, sold as ermine, and dyed, repre- 
sented as chinchilla—rabbit, twenty-five 
cents, real chinchilla, ten dollars per 
skin. 
Hares, foxes and other dyed skins pointed 
with white hairs, sold as natural furs. 
Dyed skins of many kinds, sold as natural. 
Wildeat, sold as genet. 
Opossum, blended, sold as stone marten. 
Muskrat, natural and blended, sold as water 
mink, or brook mink. 
THe Waste or Fur 
Concerning this subject a volume might be 
written, but what is the use? In all probability 
there is nothing that can be said by an outsider 
which reasonably could be expected to effect the 
slightest practical result on the wasteful use of 
fur. People of means have grown into the habit 
of being most kind and generous with themselves. 
In the matter of wearing apparel the fancy of 
the moment is immediately gratified. The closets, 
the packing trunks and the cold storage rooms 
of New York City are crowded full of perfectly 
unnecessary and useless fur garments, and par- 
ticularly fur-lined overcoats of heavy weight, 
the majority of which are 90 per cent useless 
to their owners. 
There are places and times wherein warm and 
heavy fur overcoats and fur-lined overcoats are 
both desirable and necessary. To the Dakota 
farmer, the Montana stockman and the Sas- 
katchewan wheat grower who in every winter 
drives his high-powered car over thousands of 
miles of wind-swept country at a temperature 
below zero, the fur coat is a necessity. To the 
New York gallant in evening dress who rides 
in a tightly closed and luxurious limousine from 
hotel to theatre and ball, the heavy fur over- 
coat is just about as necessary as a caribou-lined 
sleeping bag would be in the Waldorf-Astoria 
In New York a universal object of commisera- 
