20 



BIBB NOTES ANB NEWS. 



quill, and beginning to peel it down with a pen- 

 knife). " In this way, you see." 



B.S. — "Yes, that is all very well ; but you may 

 go on with that for ever, and you will never make 

 anything like an osprey out of it." 



F. — " Oh, I assure you, madam, that is the 

 method. We make them ourselves on the 

 premises." 



B.S. — "Really! That is still more interesting. 

 I suppose you would not object to allowing me to 

 see them being made?" 



F. — "Oh — er — certainly not. Miss Jones!" {Miss 

 Jones is despatched to the manager to ask if a lady 

 may be allowed to see the " manufactiire" and 

 presently returns.) 



Miss Jones. — "The manager's compliments, and 

 he thinks the forewoman has made a little mistake. 

 The ospreys are not made on the premises? 



B.S. — "My compliments to the manager, and 

 will he kindly tell me where they are made ; 

 because I will go to any part of the world to see 

 it done ! " (Interval.) 



Miss J. {on returning).— " The manager's com- 

 pliments, and he really does not know." 



B.S. {to Forewoman). — "No, he does not know, 

 and you do not know, and I do not know; because 

 there is no such place, and you are as well aware 

 of that as I am. So why in the world do you go 

 on telling that story ? " 



Once again Professor Ray Lankester has been 

 appealed to — this time by a Daily News repre- 

 sentative — respecting the genuineness or otherwise 

 of " imitation " plumage. 



"It is," was the answer, "absolutely impossible 

 to make artificial feathers that will in any way 

 resemble the genuine plumage. Only recently I 

 have had quite twenty ladies come to me with 

 their millinery, which they were informed was 

 entirely artificial, and in every case dead birds 

 had been employed. The lies told by the trade 

 sicken me as much as their practice. An osprey 

 has never been imitated, and, whatever the shop- 

 keeper may say, it is always obtained from the 

 parent bird slain at the breeding season. These 

 questions have been so often placed before me 

 that I am quite tired of assuring the public of the 

 facts of the matter." 



the opinion of experts as to the accuracy of the 

 statement that the birds used for millinery are 

 "artificial." "The investigation has proved the 

 exact contrary to be the case." Gulls, kittiwakes, 

 terns, bullfinches, starlings, doves, blue jays, and 

 birds of paradise are certified as real, and the list 

 might without difficulty be extended. 



LINES 



Dedicated to the Ladies who wear Ospreys. 



" Where are you going to, my pretty maid ? " 

 " To the milliner's show-room, sir," she said. 



" And what would you seek there, my pretty maid ? " 

 '' The beautiful ospreys, sir," she said. 



" And how are they brought there, my pretty maid ?" 

 " By famine and slaughter, sir," she said. 



" And if it be so, my pretty maid, 



Yet will you wear them ? Alas ! " he said ; 



" Around every plume that is waving there, 



Stirred by the tremulous summer air, 



There has wailed the moan of a fledgling's pain 



Uttered in anguish, but uttered in vain — 



A cry of starvation raised o'er and o'er 



To the parent birds that shall hear no more. 



In the days of gladness, the days of spring, 



Nature sighed in the breeze thro' the egret's wing ; 



And like snow in its exquisite softness white, 



A delicate plume crept forth to the light, 



Like a sanctioning seal from the God above 



On Nature's teaching and bridal love. 



But woman, whose tenderest care should seek 



To succour the helpless and guard the weak,. 



Coveted still the beauty given 



To the creature of earth by the God of heaven. 



At fashion's bidding the hunter has sped, 

 The plumes are ravished, the mother lies dead ; 

 And if such be their story, my pretty maid, 

 Yet will you wear them ? " again he said. 



Diss, 1903. Ada F. Slack. 



In the spring, it will be remembered, the Society 

 for the Protection of Birds made a thorough 

 investigation into the " imitation osprey" question. 

 The Selbornc Society has now been obtaining 



Bird Tables. — In the last number of Bird Notes 

 and News the making of nesting-boxes and shelters was 

 suggested as an employment for winter evenings. In the 

 wintry weather bird tables should be set up in the garden 

 by young carpenters. These are simple matters. A 

 wooden table-top should stand firmly on a stem of wood 

 or gas-piping high enough to be safely out of reach of 

 cats ; a hole may be cut to hold a dish of water, and 

 from cross-twigs reared above the level may be suspended 

 bones and cocoanuts, for tits and other acrobats, un- 

 attainable by the sparrow. Scraps of meat and fat, etc., 

 should vary the crumbs which are no benefit to insecti- 

 vorous birds, and sunflower heads and grain of any kind 

 will be generally acceptable. 



The Cormorant. — The Cornwall County Council, at 

 their November meeting, refused by a large majority to 

 apply for an Order excluding the cormorant from the 

 operation of the Wild Birds' Protection Acts. It was 

 urged that if promiscuous shooting were allowed at all 

 limes of the year in places where cormorants are found, 

 great injury would be done to all kinds of sea birds. 



