88 



BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



the now familiar fraud — to which so many women 

 have been easy dupes — of the so-called "imita- 

 tion," or " artificial " osprey. Many feathers, also, 

 are foisted on the ignorant buyer as those of 

 domestic poultry, though obtained from wild birds 

 of many kinds. In No. 7 of this paper some 

 particulars were given of the various birds most 

 largely employed in the plume-trade ; and litera- 

 ture on the subject can always be had from the 

 office of this Society. 



Nothing that is fresh remains to be said on this 

 topic ; but a few of the things that have been said 

 in the past are worth re-saying so long as the 

 fashion survives : — 



" It is a fact known to everyone who will take the 

 trouble to inquire, that all these egrets are shot down 

 at their breeding places while they are building 

 their nests or rearing their young, and that if so 

 be that the latter are hatched, they die of hunger 

 on their parents' death, the breeding-places being 

 absolutely devastated by the 'plume hunters.' '' — 

 Professor Newton. (Times, Feb. 25, 1899.) 



" The thoughtless fashion for these feathers has 

 caused the almost entire extinction of more than 

 one species." — Lord Lilford. '■''Birds of the 

 British Islands" {Great White Heron). 



" In the breeding season the egret has occipital 

 and dorsal ' decomposed ' feathers. These are the 

 wire-like or thread-like feathers placed erect on 

 women's hats, and at once recognized as very 

 different from all others that are worn. Women 

 know their money cost, but if they knew their 

 slaughter and starvation cost, no woman worthy the 

 name would wear them." — Prof. R. K. Hymonis. 

 {Popular Science News, Nov., 1897.) 



"Of these aigrettes, formed of 'ospreys,' it may 

 be mentioned that they consist of the slender de- 

 composed dorsal feathers of the white herons or 

 egrets, that they are the bird's nuptial ornaments, 

 consequently are only to be obtained during the 

 breeding season, when the death of the parent 

 bird involves the death by starvation of the young 

 in the nest. For the sake of the few ornamental 

 feathers yielded by each bird killed, the white 

 herons have been entirely exterminated in Florida, 

 their great breeding district in North America, and 

 the massacre has since gone on in South America, 

 Africa, India, and Australia— the birds being 

 slaughtered wholesale in the heronries." — W. H. 

 Hudson. {Times, Oct. 17, 1893.) 



"Within the last few days I have examined 

 numbers of plumes, the wearers of which were 



priding themselves on their humanity, relying upon 

 the assurance of the milliner that they were not 

 real egret's feathers, but manufactured. In every 

 case it did not take a very close scrutiny to 

 ascertain that they were unquestionably genuine. 

 The only ' manufacture ' consisted in cutting the 

 plume in two, and fixing the upper and lower 

 half side by side, so that a single feather does duty 

 for two in the ' brush.' Thus one of the most 

 beautiful of birds is being swept off the face of the 

 earth, under circumstances of peculiar cruelty, to 

 minister to a passing fashion, bolstered up by a 

 glaring falsehood." — Sir W. H. Flower, Director 

 British Natural History Museum. {Times, June, 

 26, 1896. 



"An 'osprey' has never been imitated, and 

 whatever the shopkeeper may say it is always 

 the parent bird slain at the breeding season which 

 supplies ' ospreys ' for women's hats and bonnets. 

 These questions have been so often placed before 

 me that I am quite tired of assuring the public 

 of the facts of the matter." — Professor Ray 

 Lankester, Director British Natural History 

 Museum. {Daily News, Oct. 16, 1903.) 



"Our experience here is that all the so-called 

 artificial ospreys sold in the fashionable shops are 

 heron or egret feathers." — C. E. Fagan, Natural 

 History Museum. (April, 1903.) 



" Let it be understood at once that there is no 



such thing as an artificial feather The 



statements that imitation or artificial 'ospreys' 

 are made of split quills, whalebone, or other 

 material, are all absolutely false." — IV. P. Pycrafl. 

 {Knowledge, June, 1904.) 



" How long will women tolerate a fashion which 

 involves such wholesale, wanton and hideous cruelty 

 as this?" — Times, Oct. 17, 1893. 



PLUME SALES. 



The fourth of the year's plume-sales took place 

 at the Commercial Sale Rooms on August 4th. 

 There was again a good demand for osprey feathers, 

 of which 238 packages were offered, 117 being 

 East Indian and the remainder from other parts 

 of Asia and South America. The price per ounce 

 ranged from £8 7s. 6d. down to 10s. or less. Of 

 birds-of-paradise there were 5564 skins, from New 

 Guinea. The birdskins from South America, Asia, 

 and the West Indies included humming birds, 

 peacocks, jungle-cocks, terns — no fewer than 4400 

 in the catalogue of one firm — cocks-of-the-rock, 

 trogons, tanagers, orioles, parrots, etc. 



