74 
NATURE NOTES 
regard to the trade in birds’ feathers ; and we believe that this 
sentiment will be echoed by the Selborne Society and other 
kindred associations who, with ourselves, are fighting the same 
uphill battle.” The Chairman, in moving the adoption of the 
report, said a consolidation of the Acts with reference to wild 
birds was urgently needed. Mr. Edward Giffard, who seconded, 
said he believed many men would not choose for a wife a lady 
who wore the plumage of slaughtered birds, while many ladies 
would regard with dislike a man who ate larks and other singing 
birds. A letter from Mr. Alfred Austin, the Poet Laureate, was 
read, in which the following passage occurred: — “The greatest 
stigma on the fair land of Italy, from which I write, is the 
perpetual harassing and slaughtering of birds by the entire 
populace. Hence, their groves too often want that crowning 
sylvan charm — wood notes wild.” Mrs. Edward Phillips said 
the fashion of wearing aigrettes still continued to a distressing 
extent, especially in Court circles. She thought an appeal ought 
to be made to the Queen on this subject. Her Majesty was a 
great lover of animal and bird life, and had a most tender heart. 
If her attention was drawn to the cruel method by which these 
feathers were obtained, it was quite possible that she would 
discountenance the wearing of them. This would render the 
custom unfashionable, and render a great service to the cause 
they had at heart. 
Mr. Watts’s Picture. — With reference to the picture 
referred to in the above report, Mrs. Hubbard writes to us from 
Kew (March 7) : — 
“ Of this picture a reproduction is now given in No. 28 of' 
the pamphlets published by the Society ; and I feel it would be 
an impertinence in me to speak of the impressiveness of the 
design — of the bright pathetic plumage, of the shuddering 
horror of the angel. As to the lower half of the picture I am 
more competent to speak. It is no tomb that the angel is 
bending over. It is an altar, the altar of Fashion, on which the 
lives of the birds have been sacrificed. And it is no ‘ spirit of 
evil’ that is represented on the plinth of the altar. In that 
flimsy face and figure is no demoniac power : no force is there 
equal to rise even to malignity : gesture and countenance are 
alike trivial. But, by that shrug and grimace, that would-be 
elegant contortion, did not our great artist mean something far 
more scathing than the representation of a mere abstract ‘ spirit 
of evil ’ would be ? Surely the interpretation is clear. In this 
figure Mr. Watts has dared to give us a fashionable lady — a 
real ‘ feathered woman ' ( Homo sapiens, var. plumigera , Hudson) 
plucked — would that I could say finally plucked ! ” 
Lady-birds in Winter Quarters.— While gathering early blossoms 
of gorse to-day (January 23), I found, on more than one bush, a number of 
lady-birds half concealed in the empty seed-pods of last year. 
Essendon, Hatfield, Herts. Adelaide E. Gkionon. 
