76 
NATURE NOTES. 
the young birds, but half fledged, are crying to them for food. It is impossible 
that the Princess of Wales can be aware of this, for Her Royal Highness is one of 
the gentlest and kindest-hearted of human beings.” — E d. A'/V.] 
A New Outrage ! — I am distressed to see that a new fashion has arisen which 
may mean destruction to eagles. A fortnight ago, at a shop in New Bond Street, 
I saw several fans made of eagle feathers, and this week I have seen others at a 
shop in Piccadilly. They told me in the shop that the fans come from Vienna. 
They are labelled “ great novelties,” and therefore no doubt will sell. Is there 
BO way of stopping what may mean extinction to these glorious birds? 
"i, Pelham Crescent, S.W. K. A. WuiTMORE. 
For the Protection of Birds. — .According to the Lanteme, as quoted by 
the StandartCs Paris correspondent, a congress of a novel description is shortly to 
be held in Paris. All over the Continent it seems that the wholesale destruction 
of the small insect-eating birds, by nets, traps, and birds’-nesting, has done great 
damage to agriculture, and especially in orchards and vineyards. Therefore, the 
Minister for Foreign Affairs, at the solicitation of leading agriculturists, has 
entered into negotiations for the meeting of an International Congress, to devise 
measures for the protection of insectivorous birds. .Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, 
the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Roumania, and Greece have expressed their 
willingness to attend. Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Italy have intimated 
that they are bound by international treaties for the protection of birds, but that 
if the new scheme did not materially clash with their own they would readily 
accept it. — H’est minster Gazette, J/arch 14. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Notes from Florida. — A friend has sent me your issue for December, 
1893. Perhaps you would like some more Florida notes. Did your correspon- 
dent, I wonder, find the “orange dog” chrysalis? it is a wonderful example of 
mimicry, being a perfect copy of the broken bit left when a twig is snapoed off, 
having an irregular, splintered-looking end. Altogether, with the repulsive 
looking caterpillar, which looks like the dropping from a large bird, and has an 
evil and unholy smell, and the twig mimicry in the chrysalis, Papilio cresphontes 
should be well protected. AVe are about one hundred miles from Oakland, and 
on the Gulf of Alexico, so we have land and water fauna and flora. Our three 
commonest — or rather most conspicuous — birds are the blue jay, the cardinal 
grosbeak and the mocking bird. Everyone has heard stories of the latter, and 
really its powers of imitation are superb. I have heard at different times the 
whip-poor-will — which, by the W'ay, calls “chuck willow willow ” — a clucking hen, 
and even an air which my children had been singing at their play. Sometimes at 
night in the nesting season a mocker will practise all he knows, and then you do 
not like to go to bed. One solo lasted over an hour, and included the wood- 
peckers’ pairing sound (an inconceivably rapid tapping), the martin’s love note, a 
hunter whistling his dog, the dog yelping, besides his own exquisite song. The 
jay is a handsome, noisy, impudent fowl, with a comic habit of shouting “we — e — e 
did it ! we— e — e did it ! ” The grosbeak, or red bird, is a beauty — bright crimson 
with black cheek patches. His wife is as dainty-looking a little thing as the 
most exacting could ask. In sheeny quaker dress, she looks a perfect little lady 
among birds, with her quiet, retiring ways. Their common note is “chip ; ” the 
cock also calls “ pedro, pedro,” and both can sing very prettily. All these three 
are easily tamed to come up for crumbs. Another common bird is the butcher 
bird, or great grey shrike. He sings “ music, music” in the gentlest voice — 
belied by his cruel black eye. Anything he can catch he impales on thorns and 
leaves to die. A friend assures me it is done “for fun” merely, and the bird 
fairly dances to see them writhe. I thought our “ rabbit ” was a hare (Lepus 
.americamis) and not a burrower, but am told it often lives in gopher holes, 
although I have never found it, night or day, anywhere except in the open. I 
