230 
NATURE NOTES. 
The writer who expostulates against the persistence of 
Nature Notes in regarding women as mainly responsible for 
“ the desolation that is slowly creeping over the whole earth ”■ 
does not attempt to deny the extent of the evil occasioned by 
the destruction of birds for women’s headgear and “ trimmings.”' 
It matters little to birds or bird-lovers, whether the men who 
kill and sell them, or the women who buy and wear them, are 
most to blame ; the fact remains that in this case the receiver is 
worse than the thief. 
It is women who create the demand, it is women who supply 
the money for the guns and appliances of the plume-hunters 
who are even now taking orders for the exploitation of such 
heronries as yet remain — for the egrets, and for the hunting down 
of the birds of paradise wherever they can still be found in the 
next nesting season, where in their brightest plumage they will 
die in the nest sooner than forsake their fledgelings. 
The founders of the Selborne Society, and of the more recent 
Society for the Protection of Birds, believed that if the cruel 
cost at which the feathers were alone procurable could be 
thoroughly exposed, the fashion would be forthwith and for ever 
abandoned. In this they have been sorely disappointed. 
The “ Bird of Paradise Egret ” is the fashionable head 
decoration, largely advertised, and to be seen in all public 
places ; streets, charity-bazaars, and even churches. There are 
no doubt many imitations, and it would almost appear that the 
milliners sell the “ mixed plumes ” as real or artificial, according 
to the wish of the buyer. It is often not easy to distinguish the 
one from the other, because the lovely plumes are rarely worn in a 
natural state, but are bleached, d}'ed black, or coloured, stiffened 
and bunched up beyond recognition. “ M. T.”, however, declares 
that the use of artificial plumes proves that women are ready to 
accept any substitute, however stiff and ugly, rather than “ wear 
the real thing procured (by men) in such a cruel manner.” 
But why this dismal alternative ? Cannot the deft fingers of 
plumassiers and milliners concoct from the feathers of birds 
killed for food, from lace and ribbon, and flowers, decorations 
in every sense more becoming even than the “ real thing ” as now 
worn, or its imitations ? Then, too, there are the plumes of the 
ostriches. These birds are reared and preserved for their 
feathers, which may be supplied to almost any extent, without 
cruelty, provided only they be taken at the proper time, in the 
proper manner. The slaughter of moles, however ill-judged and 
cruel, is quite irrelevant to the present question, and as to the 
destruction of butterflies by school boys, this can scarcely be 
reproved by mothers or sisters who have not first removed the 
beam from their own eye — that is, the aigrette from their bonnet. 
E. Phillips. 
Vaughan House, Croydon. 
