8i



would be a demand for orange feathers and skins of this par¬

ticular shade in next season’s fashions of hats and bonnets. I

informed my friend, Dr. Russ, and, at his request, wrote a

vigorous protest, which he took care to have reprinted from his

Feathered World into very many continental papers. For that

season we did nip in the bud the absurd fashion of ornamenting

ladies’ hats by fixing on them birds’ bodies in impossible

positions and ludicrous surroundings. Unfortunately I had

signed my name, and, as a result, I received a large and

amusing number of complimentary, facetious, and also some

uncomplimentary letters of all sorts from all parts of the world.


Another time I raised a puzzling question, which was

never solved by the readers of the Feathered World , nor by Dr.

Russ either. “ Why does the Stork, which is so common in Alsace

and South Germany and which crosses the Mediterranean,

never cross the English Channel, and is practically unknown in

England ? ” Nobody has yet found a satisfactory answer. An

amusing explanation was, however, suggested. In Alsace the

Stork is supposed to bring the babies to young households. In

England the families are so numerous that the Storks made a

strike and have kept away ever since.


But to return to Dr. Russ. To him the credit is due of

having popularised, more than any author of his time, the

knowledge and intelligent care of foreign cage birds. His

training, his great power of observation, and his love for the

subject, fitted him wonderfully for the task which he had under¬

taken. Whilst his descriptions are full of life and of personal

observation, the} 7 exert a fascination on the reader which is rarely

found in the writings of his more dogmatic contemporaries,

some of whom seemed to find it difficult to admit that an

apothecary should not only master so thoroughly a distinct

branch of Natural Science, but also achieve so rare an amount

of popularity in disseminating that science.



ON SEXUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE WINGS OF


BIRDS.


By Arthur G. Butter, Ph.D.


It will be remembered that in Volume IV. of the Maga¬

zine a notice was inserted on the cover asking Members to

forward to me dead birds having perfect wings, in order that I

might study the sexual differences in these organs. To this

request the Hon. Mrs. Carpenter and one or two other Members



