IRatuve IRotes : 
Zhc Selbovne Sodct)j’s flDaoasine 
No. 8o. AUGUST, ,1896. Vol. VII. 
“OSPREYS” IN HIGH PLACES. 
NDER this heading we printed more than two years ago* 
i two protests by valued members of the Selborne Society, 
I against the use of “ospreys” at one of the Queen’s 
Drawing-rooms, and against the example set by the 
Princess of Wales, whose court train on that occasion was 
trimmed with them. 
Since that time continuous protests have been made in almost 
every quarter against this cruel fashion, with, alas, but little 
effect. The last, and from the position of the writer, the most 
important of these, was from Sir William Flower, Director of 
the Natural History Museum, in the Times of June 25. No one 
can accuse Sir William of being either a sentimentalist or a 
“ faddist,” yet no one could have spoken more plainly than he 
has done, as his letter, w'hich we here reproduce, will show : — 
You have upon several occasions given some of your valuable space to 
letters upon the cruelty involved in the fashion of wearing feathers in ladies’ hats. 
Especially has it been pointed out that the lovely, delicate plumes of the small 
white herons or egrets can only be procured by the destruction of the birds during 
the season in which they have their nests and young, as then only are these 
feathers developed. In the trade, for some unknown reason, they are called 
“ osprey,” though the real bird of that name, a kind of fishing hawk, produces no 
ornamental plumes. Notwithstanding all that has been said, the garden-party 
season now beginning shows that the fashion is as prevalent as ever. I have 
recently noticed many of the gentlest and most kind-hearted among my lady 
friends, including some who are members of the Society for the Protection of 
Birds, and who, I am sure, would never knowingly do any injury to living 
creature, adorned with these very plumes. Why is this ? Simply because, in 
order to keep up their trade and dispose of their stock, the purveyors of female 
raiment, to salve the consciences of their customers, have invented and widely 
propagated a monstrous fiction, and are everywhere selling the real feathers 
warranted as artificial ! Within the last few days I have examined numbers of 
plumes, the wearers of which were priding themselves on their humanity, relying 
upon the assurance of the milliner that they were not real egret’s feathers but 
Nature Notes, 1894, p. 75 
