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NATURE NOTES. 
subterfuge ” is disposed of, the writer goes on to say that “ these 
ladies who are priding themselves on their humanity are, as 
they would themselves say, monsters of cruelty, responsible for 
the wounding and maiming of myriads of birds, and the starving 
to death of countless families of nestlings.” And he concludes 
by stating that “ more suffering is produced to supply the 
bonnets for one garden party than in all the physiological 
laboratories of the world.” 
Now we should be very loth to believe of women what this 
medical journalist has here set forth. As mother, sister, wife, 
we love to think of them as the gentlest and kindest of all 
beings ; and under their influence we look to receive and learn, 
in such matters as these, the very best instruction. Thus, we 
prefer to believe that what has been complained of results merely 
from inattention or inadvertence. The poet who “ sang the song 
of the shirt ” wisely tells us that 
“ Evil is wrought by want of thought 
•■\s well as want of heart.” 
We believe’[that it is from the merest want of thought that 
these dire results occur. The gentlest of all tenders of birds are 
women ; they are the best of all feeders at trying times ; and it 
is they that always succeed in winning the birds’ best affections. 
When the beautiful white-winged doves of the sea were daily 
congregating by thousands on St. James’s Lake, it was women 
that were the most assiduous feeders of these birds ; and as one 
watched the pretty sight, saw some birds catch from women’s 
hands pieces thrown from the bridge, and others standing on the 
ice, looking like some of Dore’s groups of angels, it w’as no un- 
common thing to remark that among those who were the most 
assiduous feeders, several had their hats adorned with the 
plumage of these very birds. It was, one may be sure, the 
merest inadvertence ; and the incongruity did not, probably, 
ever occur to the wearers themselves. If we can get women to 
believe that these beautiful creatures who afford us so much 
delight have faculties somewhat like our own ; that they learn 
song much as we do, build nests as we build houses, and some- 
times, in these things, seem to surpass many of us ; that they 
are not to be simply credited with “ blind instinct,” but have 
faculties that may rightly engage our sympathies ; then it is to 
be hoped that women will refuse to adorn themselves with 
plumage plucked from gladsome parents whose progeny are, by 
their loss, left to hapless destruction, and that a feeling for better 
ways will be begun among women ; and, if well begun, it will, 
we may feel pretty sure, be carried on to the perfection that all 
lovers of birds desire by a persistent energy that women are, in 
all things they take to heart, always proud to display. 
Richmond-on-Thatncs. W. J. C. Miller. 
