“ OSPRE VS ” 
7 
Nature. Nature-study, to be worth anything, must be study at 
first hand, and not merely from books or drawings ; but, just 
as the student requires to be taught liow to observe, so all art 
is selective, and it is, therefore, useful for the art student to be 
taught how to observe. We should be sorry if any art student 
tried to learn flowers at second-hand from the collection of 
photographic studies in the .-\rt Library at South Kensington ; 
but these pictures may serve admirably to teach the student how 
to pose his subject and to suggest how, for purposes of design, 
the natural form may be conventionally treated. As really 
beautiful as well as accurate transcripts from Nature, these photo- 
graphs would, with some of Mr. Gambier Botton’s portraits of 
animals, be admirable substitutes for many of the pictures that 
now “ adorn ” our school-room walls. The South Kensington 
collection is arranged alphabetically and comprises the work of 
various artists ; but none of those published are better than 
the photographs by Mr. Henry Irving. All of these evince 
most careful study, and we have marked more for special 
mention than we can possibly enumerate here ; but undoubtedly 
those taken at closest quarters and most completely isolated are 
the most satisfactory. Among these are corn and various other 
grasses, the sprays, buds and fruits of many trees, and many 
garden favourites, as well as wild flowers ; and few are, perhaps, 
more typical of Mr. Irving’s method than the wild strawberry, 
a reduced copy of which he, as a member of the Society, has 
kindly lent us for reproduction. 
“OSPREYS.” 
R. EUGENE ANDRE in his book “ A Naturalist in 
the Guianas,” says 
“ The principal exports of Ciudad-Bolivar are hides, 
rubber, tonca-beans, feathers, and copaiba oil. 
The feathers, known in the trade as ospreys, are sent from the 
country on the banks of the Apure and the Arauca. The 
swamps in the vicinity of these rivers are the abode of numberless 
flocks of wild- fowl, of which two varieties of egret are 
abundant. It is from these egrets that the feathers which form 
so expensive an article of commerce are obtained. The small 
egret {Ardea candid issima) produces the most valuable plumes : 
from the larger birds [Ardea garzetta) a coarser feather is 
obtained, which is not so much appreciated, but the wily dealer 
can sort his plumes so as to introduce a fair proportion of the 
inferior article without danger of detection. Quite a number of 
birds have to be slaughtered to produce a pound of feathers, 
only a few drooping plumes from the backs of the birds being 
taken. The season for collecting extends through the months 
of June, July, and August, that is, through the mating and 
breeding period. The egrets are wary birds, and difficult of 
