WHITE HERONS AND HORSES 
169 
part of our military adornment was made up of these same 
nuptial plumes of the Ardea gracilis. It was clearly of little avail 
to appeal to the ladies in time of peace if their husbands and 
brothers were to go forth to fight for them and their hearths and 
homes clad in the plumes which they had discarded. The agita- 
tion appeared to the female mind to be unjust, or at least one- 
sided. But Sir John Lubbock was equal to the occasion. On 
the 23rd of last month he asked the Under Secretary for War if 
lie was aware that the so-called osprey feathers worn as plumes 
by certain regiments were only developed by and were stripped 
from the birds during the breeding season, and that the destruc- 
tion of the old birds involved the starvation of the young ones ; 
and if he would consider the desirability of abandoning the use 
of a decoration which involved the slaughter of birds under cir- 
cumstances now shown to involve such cruelty. Mr. Brodrick 
replied : “ Orders have been given that plumes composed other- 
wise than of so-called ‘ osprey ’ feathers shall be preferred, with 
a view to obtaining the sanction of Her Majesty to the abolition 
of the osprey plumes worn by the commissioned officers in certain 
regiments ” ! He added that the selection of a satisfactory sub- 
stitute was difficult, and that some delay might occur in effecting 
a change. If the Ardea gracilis is to be saved, that delay must 
not be long. Meanwhile one of the greatest stumbling-blocks in 
the way of the reformers who wish to see the last of murderous 
millinery in our land has been removed, and one can now with 
a quieter conscience ask the fair sex to follow a good example. 
The writer of these lines was standing a week ago with G. F. 
Watts before his as yet unfinished picture “ The Altar of 
Fashion.” An angel, shuddering at the sight of so many beautiful 
birds’ wings heaped senselessly and cruelly upon that altar, hides 
her face in her hands, and he heard the aged painter say — and the 
blood flushed to his face as he said it, — I say deliberately that 
the savage may be forgiven, but for these ladies of our land who, 
knowing better, will still slay the innocent blood to bedeck them- 
selves with feather-finery, where is there any place of forgiveness 
for them ? It is horrible, it is cruel, it is monstrous, it is un- 
feminine, it is degrading.” 
But if the Secretary for War is considerate enough to do 
what he can to prevent cruelty and wrong among the cane-brakes 
of Florida where the Ardea gracilis breeds, it is now within the 
bounds of hope that the Secretary for Peace, the member who 
presides over the Board of Agriculture, may also take heart oi 
grace and do for the outworn and aged horses of our own land 
what Mr. Brodrick has done for the Florida heron. It is now 
clear that nothing but the act of the British Legislature can put 
an end to the hideous traffic in horseflesh which, for the profit of 
the meat-juice manufacturer in Belgium, is now going on between 
our shores and the Belgian ports. The Society for the Preven- 
tion of Cruelty to Animals recently interviewed Mr. Walter 
Long, who suggested that Mr. Colam, the secretary, should 
