i/8 
NATURE NOTES. 
allowable by Selbornians, will prove to be the thin end of the wedge, will undo 
much of the good that the Society has done, and will lead to a far greater de- 
struction of small birds for millinery purposes than is, unhappily, the case at 
present. I suppose there are very few persons with any taste who would care to 
wear a bird so badly made that it is obviously an imitation. If, on the other 
hand, the bird is made so like nature as to be mistaken for it (I heard two ladies 
arguing the point in the milliner’s shop whether the birds were real or not), one 
might just as well wear the real thing so far as example is concerned, unless 
indeed the bird could carry a scroll in its mouth with the inscription for all to 
read, ‘ I am a Selborne bird ! ’ 
“ Then there is the danger that people who at first were careful that the birds 
worn should be ‘ made ’ ones, would become lax or indifferent. If the fashion 
became general would the makers be content to use only the feathers of those 
birds which are used as food ? As the demand for ‘ made ’ birds increased the 
demand for variety would almost certainly increase also, and birds of brilliant 
plumage would be slaughtered and re-‘made’ under the name of ‘Selborne 
birds.’ I can hardly understand how anyone with the smallest love for nature and 
the beautiful can see anything to admire in a poor little dead bird, or (what is 
even worse from a merely aesthetic point of view), a bird made to imitate a dead 
one, spread out on the top of a hat or bonnet. To put it on that ground alone, 
who would wish to encourage so inartistic a fashion ? 
“ When in Paris last winter I was struck by the comparatively small number 
of birds and wings shown in the milliners’ windows, and on enquiring the reason 
at one of the principal shops in the Rue de la Paix, was told there was very little 
demand for them, and that many of the English and Americans belonged to a 
Society which was against the wearing of birds and wings. Why cannot the 
English and Americans in this country show a like spirit? ” 
A. M. H., a member of the Bath Branch, is more intense in her denunciation 
of artificial birds. She writes as follows : — “ In reading the letters in last 
month’s Nature Notes on birds and bonnets, I am astonished that the writers 
of some of them have not seen what a great mistake they are making. By their 
ingenious devices to procure sham birds and wings, they are doing almost as 
much harm as if they were wearing real ones. They are lending their influence 
to promote the very fashion, which, as we are told in the very same issue, it is 
one of our objects as members of the Selborne Society to discourage. If we could 
label this made-up plumage ‘Sham,’ we should be all right, but the writers of the 
letters for the most part congratulate themselves on the impossibility of distinguish- 
ing them [the birds, presumably] from real ones. I shall be glad if you will kindly 
insert this letter in your next issue, as surely the lady members of the Selborne 
Society will be willing to renounce all birds and plumage when they see how they 
are promoting a cruel and wicked fashion.” 
M.F.L.S.W., Bidboro’, near Tunbridge Wells, condemns the use of artificial 
birds, and suggests the following substitutes for Selbornians : — 
“ Nothing could be more appropriate and pretty in a hat or bonnet than 
berries or flowers of the wintry season. Mountain ash berries, holly, haws, are 
all suitable for winter wear, and what can be prettier than the rosy hips when a 
good imitation? Then there are the white snowberries, bright elderberries, and 
many others, well-known in our gardens. Chrysanthemums of various colours 
could well be worn, Christmas roses, snowdrops, and other winter flowers, and if 
the milliners were repeatedly asked for such articles not always kept in stock, the 
constant demand would result in the perfect manufacture of such novel and pretty 
ornaments.” 
A lady who is well known for her interest in this matter veils her identity 
under the pseudonym of “ Asphodel,” and sends the following 
“ Lines by a Person of Quality, written in the days’of Electric Wire, 
“ Stiffly spread thy pointed pinions. 
Steel-blue swallow, o’er my hat ; 
Thou art one of Fashion’s minions — 
Not alive — but what of that ? ” 
We presume that the advocates of artificial birds would prefer the last line of 
