Society for the Protection of Birds — No. 5 . 
This leaflet is issued in the hope that some chance reader 
(man or woman, boy or girl) may be induced to protest, earnestly 
and persistently, against the wholesale slaughter of beautiful, 
useful, and melodious birds for “ ornamental ” purposes ; es¬ 
pecially against the extinction of entire species of Herons to 
furnish “ Osprey” plumes for women’s headgear. 
(Three copies can be obtained free, by sending an addressed postal wrapper 
to Mrs. Phillips, ii, Morland Road, Croydon, S.E.) 
OSPREVS or AIGRETTES.—“Among the numerous 
trifles that make up a fashionably trimmed bonnet is a slender 
spiral feather of the most fragile and delicate appearance, which 
waves and nods with the slightest waft of wind. It is worn 
too, in the evening, and may be seen in every tint surmounting 
aigrettes of roses, or a group of butterflies which seem to repose 
on folds of airy net or tulle. This ornament is called an Os¬ 
prey. The original owners are the Egrets and the smaller sort 
of Heron, who wear them in the Spring and in the breeding 
season. The cruelty practised in obtaining them, if generally 
known, would surely soon put an end to the traffic in these 
plumes, however graceful and becoming they may be. The old 
birds are deliberately killed off in scores while employed in 
feeding their young, who are left to starve to death in their nests 
in hundreds. An American ornithologist describes their dying 
cries as heartrending. 
What gentle woman would wear a decoration obtained 
under such circumstances as these ?”—Daily News, Sept. 28 th, 
1887, re-printed by permission of the Editor. 
