72 
BIRD-PROTECTION. 
Audubon Societies in the United States. — Whilst we 
have received for review the two sumptuous volumes on 
Audubon ( Audubon and his Journals, by Maria R. Audubon, 
2 vols., John C. Nimmo) just published, of which a notice will 
appear in our next number, we note with pleasure that the 
establishment of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, in 
January, 1896, for the protection of birds, has been followed by 
the formation of similar bodies in no less than thirteen of the 
other United States. Their main purpose is “ to discourage 
buying and wearing for ornamental purposes the feathers of 
any wild bird,” and one method they propose to adopt is to 
establish a “ Bird Day ” in public schools, so as to enlist the 
interest of the children. 
Protective Legislation. — The efforts of the friends of 
birds in America have already had a definite result. A Bill has 
recently been passed by the Massachusetts States Legislature, 
prohibiting the wearing of song and insectivorous birds on 
women’s hats ; and the city of Boston is vigorously enforcing 
the law. A petition, framed by Senator Hoar, on behalf and 
in the name of the birds, is said to have been instrumental 
in the passing of this law. In illustration of the extent of the 
demands of a cruel and barbarous fashion in woman’s dress, 
one of the officials of the Boston Natural History Museum has 
compiled a list of birds which he saw adorning (?) women’s 
headgear, in which forty species were represented. 
A Protest from “Ouida.” — In a manifesto addressed to the 
Dames of the Primrose League by “ Ouida,” is the following 
strongly-worded protest : — 
“ Your beloved royalties condone such destruction, and deck 
themselves with humming-bird, paradise-bird and tuft of egret, 
and you cannot of course pretend to be more tender of soul than 
your superiors. If you did not adorn yourselves also with 
murdered birds, you might actually look as if you had the 
impertinence to give royalty a rebuke — forbid it heaven ! Ah, 
no ! Content yourselves with rebuking a hedger and ditcher 
for his sin in owning a dog, or with collaring a small boy in his 
crime of pocketing a partridge’s egg ; but never run the risk of 
even passively, or by mere example, appearing to censure those 
cherished personages with whom you dine at Balmoral, lunch 
at Sandringham, and catch cold at Windsor.” 
Grebes. —Fashion has once more laid deadly toll on these 
very beautiful and ornamental birds, and filled the milliners’ 
windows with hundreds of thousands of their silky white breasts. 
To supply this demand what slaughter of grebes there must 
have been in North America, Northern Scandinavia, Russia 
and Iceland ; and I fear to think the grebes of our own meres 
and broads have also been sacrificed to the cruel goddess. If 
