THE BLUE JAY 113 
being all the plumes of the various egrets and small 
eastern herons, with a few of the common heron (A. 
cinera). Of birds of paradise from New Guinea, there 
were 3255, chiefly P. afoda,; of Impeyan pheasants 
from the Himalayas, 648; of Indian rollers (blue jays) 
no fewer than 3913, with also a large number of East 
Indian pigeons (wings), and pittas, Indian owls, parrots, 
and jungle cocks. One firm catalogued 469 Chinese 
mandarin ducks. The remainder of the birds were 
mostly from America, comprising 52,628 humming 
birds, and numerous cardinals, tanagers, trogans, 
toucans, parrots, etc. There were also a large quantity 
of wing quills from pelicans, swans, geese, turkeys, and 
eagles,” 
At the June sale ten cases of peacock-feathers were 
sold, each case containing about 100 lb. of feathers, 
Thanks to the efforts made by the Society for the 
Protection of Birds, of which the Honorary Secretary 
for India is Mr. W. Jesse, F.Z.S., Meerut, United Pro- 
vinces, many ladies now have scruples about wearing in 
their hats the corpses of little birds. 
As an antidote to this, the “Trade” has started the 
fiction that “ ospreys” are now manufactured artificially. 
This has been more than once “shown up.” It is 
not possible to manufacture such artificial plumes, and 
I hope that no statements to the contrary made by the 
feather trade will delude any lady into thinking the 
contrary, 
But we must return to our blue jay, who, as we have 
seen, is no jay at all; nor is he nearly related to the jay 
family. The rollers constitute a curious little clan, 
I 
