OSPREYS" AGAIN. 
209 
“OSPREYS ” AGAIN. 
HE cruelty involved in procuring the feathers of egrets 
called “ ospreys ” by milliners, has been often exposed. 
Finding that many humane ladies were this year 
wearing such plumes, especially the cheap kind called 
“ brush osprey,” under the belief that their plumes were arti- 
ficial, I determined to find out the truth as far as 1 could. Mrs. 
Lemon, Hon. Sec. of the Society for the Protection of Birds, 
has also made searching inquiries and experiments, and the result 
is we have found innumerable cases of real egret and heron 
plumes systematically sold as “ artificial osprey.” 
Two years ago a first-class milliner in Regent Street sold me 
one which I was told was vegetable ; but on looking at it 
carefully at home I had doubts. My brother, j\Ir. Francis 
Darw'in, had it examined by a Cambridge ornithologist, who told 
told me the very species of egret off whose back it came. This 
year I bought six specimens of these “brush ospreys” from 
important and well-known shops in St. Paul’s Churchyard, 
Kensington High Street, Edgware Road, Oxford Street, and 
Wigmore Street, at prices varying from 6 fd. to 4 s. In every case 
an assurance was given that these ospreys were artificial, and 
therefore that there could be no cruelty ; although as to one 
the assistant informed me that many of their ladies objected to 
wearing ospreys on grounds of humanity, and that then they 
always sold them the “ brush ” ones which were “ not cruel ” 
— why, she did not know, for she believed they did come from 
part of the same feather. These six samples were sent to Sir 
William Flower, Director of the Natural History ^luseum, for 
examination, and he assures me that with the exception of one, 
which is principally made up of two dyed and curled bird-of- 
paradise feathers, “ all are real ‘egret ’ feathers, i.e., the plumes 
which grow only in the breeding season on the back of one or 
other of the small species of white heron, commonly called 
‘ egret,’ and which for some unaccountable reason have generally 
been called in the feather trade ‘ osprey,’ though the bird that 
really owns that name, a fish-hawk, produces no ornamental 
plumes. The statement that these feathers are artificial is an 
entire fabrication, intended to salve the consciences of those who 
wear and sell them.” 
They are, no doubt, extremely beautiful, and have an airy 
grace which cannot be surpassed ; but the price which must 
be paid for them, as they only appear during the breeding 
season, and are the nuptial plumes of these birds, is the death 
by starvation of the young ones. 
Mr. Scott, a well-known American ornithologist, describes, 
with much detail and great vividness their breeding places in 
* See vol. xii. (1887), of The Auk, Quarterly Journal of Ornithology, published 
in New York. 
