president's address. 
8 
I venture to think that considerable advantage would 
accrue to many if they were to join some Natural History 
Society and obtain an opportunity of peeping into “ the book 
of Nature.” 
At the meeting of the Midland Union a strong appeal 
was made for the protection of native plants, which 
I hope has met with some success. I now wish to 
raise my voice on behalf of the feathered tribes', my 
especial favourites, who, to satisfy the demands of a 
certain fashion, are being slaughtered all over the world, 
to decorate both hats and dresses of fashionable ladies. 
Criticising such decorations from a naturalist's point of view, 
they are neither beautiful nor real; you often see the wings 
of one bird associated with the head and tail of another, or 
vice versa, and arranged contrary to all natural laws. This 
slaughter is no light matter, when skins are ordered by the 
thousand and tens of thousands, if we wish to preserve from 
total extinction a number of birds, many of them the brightest 
gems in creation. The formation of the Anti-Plumage League 
lias not been started too soon, and every Natural History 
Society ought—in fact it is a duty—to assist as far as possible 
in putting an end to this “barbaric fashion.” If the fair 
wearers would only consider for a moment the cruelty and 
suffering caused in obtaining the necessary skins to trim even 
one dress, I feel sure their kind feelings and tender hearts 
would cause them to shun such a fashion. You may say 
that I am the last person qualified to advocate the preserva¬ 
tion of birds, having so many victims in my possession, but 
I do not hesitate to say that one milliner’s warehouse would 
contain more skins than all my collection. If the Press 
would only take this matter up in the same spirit they do if a 
single rare migrant is shot, which in all probability would not 
stay in this country, I fancy the slaughter of the “innocents” 
would soon come to an end. 
The subject I have chosen for my address is not only 
interesting to an ornithologist, but to naturalists in general, 
especially to evolutionists, viz., “ The coloration of eggs 
and form of nest: whether governed by inherent instinct 
or not.” 
It has been affirmed that birds construct their nests not 
from instinct, or, more properly speaking, inherent knowledge 
how to form their nests, but from imitation and memory, and 
statements in support of such theory are given, such as this— 
that birds in confinement do not make a nest typical of their 
species. Perhaps not, because in all probability the bird has 
not the proper materials wherewith to construct one; but 
