178 
NATURE NOTES. 
''Birds and Fashions. — With regard to the use of birds and feathers in 
personal adornment, there is perhaps some comfort to be extracted from the fact 
that the grosser, more repulsive forms of this mode are undoubtedly less often 
seen now than in recent years. This change for the better has come about in 
spite of the efforts of milliners, drapers, and the writers of veiled advertisements 
in the fashion columns of many journals. It must now be generally known that 
the wearing of stuffed birds on hats is regarded with feelings of extreme disgust 
by a large and constantly increasing portion of the public. And that knowledge 
has not been without effect. The trade in stuffed birds has declined enormously. 
Those who continue to offend by exhibiting such barbarous ornaments as gulls, 
terns, parrots, or paroquets, and various other stuffed birds, in their hats, can 
but excite surprise rather than admiration. 
“ ‘ Ospreys.' — In the lamentable passion for wearing ‘ ospreys,’ or aigrettes of 
white herons’ feathers, there is unhappily but little change. The fact that a few 
of the finest samples of these plumes have been sold in the London feather- 
market at the enormous price of ;^io per ounce, affords strong evidence that the 
white egret is still being pursued to extermination in the distant regions where it 
is found, for the sake of its few ornamental or nuptial feathers. 
"Larks and Lapwings. — The excessive destruction in this country of two 
favourite species, the lark and lapwing, is a matter of concern to all lovers of wild 
bird life. With regard to the first, it is satisfactory to find that the recently 
established British Supply Association declines to supply larks to their customers ; 
and it is to be hoped that this excellent example will be widely followed. The 
lapwing, peewit, or green plover, is now known to be decreasing throughout the 
country, and Sir Herbert Maxwell has repeatedly pointed out that this beautiful 
and useful bird cannot stand the present excessive drain on its numbers. In the 
Times (September 7, 1896), he writes that the ' peewit is the only wild bird of 
which omnivorous man eats both the eggs and the adults. This is not fair play, 
and it is, besides, a most wasteful and senseless proceeding.’ ” 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
The Great Northern Diver. — May I be allowed to say that Mr. Aplin’s 
remarks, as appended to my notice of facts, appear to me somewhat peremp- 
tory (if not discourteous) ? I nowhere asserted that for certain that bird did 
breed in Sutherlandshire. But in defence of those who think it may occasion- 
ally do so, I demur to the assertion that the frequent presence of the bird 
is “no evidence whatever.” It is not demonstrative, but it is fair probable 
evidence that the fact may be so. Some one appears to have said (the sentence, 
“ while that a pair . . were actually breeding ” conveys no clear meaning) 
that a pair bred in Sutherlandshire in 1868. My experience is of Sutherlandshire : 
gathered in many ramblings there, some of two months’ duration. I know well 
almost every hill, stream, glen, and loch from Ullapool by coast to Lochinvar, 
Cape Wrath, Durness, Loch Erriboll, thence to Lairg, Oyhel Bridge and 
Ullapool again, by walking experience. If an expression of what may be 
possible, or information as to facts, from such knowledge during forty-two years 
past, is disparaged as valueless in your pages, I have no wish to give it, nor shall 
trouble myself to do so any more. Further (as I think), if “ it is an inaccuracy 
to say that the northern diver breeds in the North of Scotland,” it is equally an 
inaccuracy “ in the present state of our knowledge ” to say that it does not. 
W. C. Green. 
I do not think my remarks were either peremptory or discourteous ; and I 
should like to point out that they did not refer particularly to Mr. Green’s 
communication, but to the subject generally. I must repeat that until it has 
been satisfactorily proved that the northern diver breeds in Great Britain, it is an 
inaccur.'icy to say that it does so. It should be remembered that in my notes I 
have been defending myself from a charge of inaccuracy in my review of Birds 
from Moidart. On p. 92 I have pointed out the generally accepted belief 
