196 
NATURE NOTES. 
SELBORNIANA. 
The following excellent letter from Mrs. Phillips, Vice-President of the 
Society for the Protection of Birds, appeared lately in the Midland Free Press : — 
“ Mixed Plumes. — A paragraph in a recent London paper states that 
‘ a well-known lady was seen at the opera in a box, the other night, with an 
ornament in her hair that was exactly like the sort of brush servants use to clean 
lamp chimneys with. It stuck up to such a height that the wearer had to bend 
her head on entering her box, and whenever she moved it flicked the dust off the 
curtains and walls.’ The writer has aptly described an extreme specimen of the 
‘ mixed plumes ’ arranged in the form of a lamp-chimney or sweep’s brush, the 
demand for which has renewed the persecution of the birds of paradise, which 
abated when the turbans of our great-grandmothers went out of fashion. 
“ The dorsal and other plumes of certain species of herons, known in the trade 
as ospreys or egrets, or (in French) aigrettes, are, it is well known, obtained in 
their full beauty only in the breeding season. It is the nuptial plumage which 
is torn from the parent birds, whose bodies are flung aside dead or alive, as may 
be, in festering heaps, while the young ones are left to starve, uttering loud and 
piteous cries. Extensive heronries in Florida and elsewhere have been utterly 
destroyed in this manner, and exact statistics have been recorded by American 
and other naturalists, endorsed by the high authority of Professor Newton, who 
has suggested that the wearers of an ornament obtained at such a murderous cost, 
should be tarred as well as feathered. 
“ In anticipation of the present season some arch-enemy of bird-life discovered 
that the matchless plumage of the birds of paradise included lovely tufts of long 
and delicate plumes, occasionally two feet in length, of intense golden yellow and 
pale brown, which divided, bleached, or dyed would sell for some sixpence 
a-piece, mix well with the ospreys, and furnish a large profit for the trade, 
wholesale and retail. The idea has been carried out with remarkable energy and 
success. The Hon. Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Birds gives an 
instance of one London warehouse having sold 60,000 dozen of these mixed 
sprays during the recent season, in fact, the use or rather cruel abuse has been so 
great that Mrs. Lemon states the prevailing impression in the trade to be that the 
supply is failing — that these comparatively rare, tropical birds are being rapidly 
used up. M. Jules Forest affirms, in his Oiseaux dans la Mode, that it is already 
difficult to procure perfect specimens, since none of them are allowed to live long 
enough to attain their full plumage, which in the case of the male bird takes 
several years to develop. 
“The English press — town and country — including the Times, with its strong 
leader enforcing Mr. Hudson’s letter regarding “ Feathered Women,” has for 
many years protested against the wasteful destruction of bird life, not perhaps 
quite in vain, for the stuffed carcasses commonly worn two or three seasons ago 
are discarded, and the plumes now worn are for the most part dyed, stiffened, 
and arranged almost beyond recognition. The tar brush suggested, for the 
wearers, seems to have been employed upon the feathers. 
“ Is not the wholesale slaughter of herons and birds of paradise rather a heavy 
price to pay for any headgear, and might not some bird-lover gain the ear and 
touch the heart of the leaders of fashion, of the Princess of Wales and other 
royal princesses, for instance, and win from them — as from Mme. Carnot, in the 
brief day of her power as Mme. la Presidente of France — a strong and public 
protest against what Lord Lilford has termed the ‘ destruction of birds for the 
disfigurement of women’s heads.’” 
