210 
NATURE NOTES. 
South Florida, and the devastation which has gone on un- 
checked except by the extinction of the different species. One 
hunter told him he had been able to get over 400 plume birds 
in less than four days. For every such plume three to four 
young birds have died a miserable death by starvation. The 
aggregate of animal suffering thus caused is very great. And 
to show the scale on which the traffic was conducted, Mr. Scott 
mentions that one trader alone employed annually forty to sixty 
gunners. But the islands in Florida which once had “ a perfect 
cloud of birds ” hovering over them all day long during the 
spring and summer months are now deserted, owing to the 
extinction there of these beautiful birds ; the scenes of slaughter 
are chiefly going on, as I am told by Professor Newton, in India 
and the East. But somewhere it must be proceeding more 
briskly than ever, for never have these plumes been so almost 
universally worn, or sold at such low prices. 
I cannot but think that if the women of England, who are 
foremost in the world in their care for their dumb brethren, 
could be made to realize the miserable scene, the festering heap 
of dead bodies of the parent birds with their plumes wrenched 
off, and the dying cries of the helpless young ones in the nests 
around, they would gladly agree to give up w'earing an ornament 
produced at such a cost. 
The question of the extinction of many beautiful and inter- 
esting forms of life is quite a different one. All naturalists 
deplore the certain result of this unfortunate fashion, and it is 
difficult to speak calmly of the pity of it all. Would that the 
wearers of these plumes would reflect over the irreparable 
damage which is being committed for a motive that no one 
can seriously think sufficient. 
R. B. Litchfield. 
OUR RIVER.- 
T is two years since we noticed Mr. G. D. Leslie’s 
Letters to Marco, f and no one can be surprised that the 
reception accorded to that delightful volume induced 
its author to produce another of the same kind. There 
is indeed this difference — that these “ Riverside Letters ” were 
penned with the intention that they should afterwards appear 
in print, whereas the former series were written with no such 
intention ; but otherwise they may be regarded, as their author 
styles them, “ a continuation of Letters to Marco.” 
* Riverside Letters. By George D. Leslie, R.A. (Macmillan & Co. 
Priee 7s. 6ci.) 
t Natukk Notes, 1894, p. 129. 
