By ilie Rev. A. C. Smith, 



363 



I cannot take leave of this subject without once more lifting up 

 my voice against another most grievous practice, which, though 

 often denounced in very plain language, is not by any means abated . 

 I mean the modern fashion on the part of the fair sex, of wearing 

 birds, or parts of birds' plumage, in their hats. I am quite certain 

 that the gentle kind-hearted ladies of England would abstain from 

 this practice, however fashionable, could they but realize the whole- 

 sale massacre of countless beautiful happy birds, which this most 

 unfortunate demand for them entails, I do not exaggerate when I 

 say that the annual slaughter of sea birds for this purpose amounts 

 to tens of thousands ; and, but a short time since, a single plumassier 

 gave an order for five hundred robins ! and another still more recently 

 for one hundred kingfishers ! and all for what ? in order (as the 

 noble President of the British Ornithologists' Union has cleverly 

 expressed it) " to supply ladies with feathers for personal disfigure- 

 ment." With the whole realm of beautiful botanical specimens 

 open to them for selection, and which are really graceful and 

 appropriate adornments ; it seems amazing that the lifeless body or 

 part of a body of a bird, slaughtered for that express purpose, should 

 be chosen in preference, and most unnaturally and quite unbe- 

 comingly be made to do duty in their place ! whereas in reality the 

 very commonest flower so employed is far more beautiful, because 

 far more in place and infinitely more harmonious with its surround- 

 ings ; in short, the one is adapted to the position, and therefore 

 natural and charming; the other is altogether out of place, and 

 therefore ungraceful and unmeaning. 



