4 
“Birds in London,” would be published in a cheap form, so that 
it could be used for school prizes, or for school reading books. It 
was very desirable, in order to foster and encourage a knowledge 
of birds, especially among young people, that an intelligent use 
should be made of the Natural History Museum at South Ken¬ 
sington, and the Gardens of the Zoological Society. Grown-up 
persons should go there for their own sakes, as well as to take 
their children, for they might be assured that they would not make 
their children interested in natural history unless they themselves 
took an interest in it too. 
This Society was doing admirable work by giving lectures on 
bird life, and she would like to see this branch of its operations 
extended to the utmost, so that these entertainments with lantern 
slides might be given in elementary and middle class schools, and 
the whole matter brought before the children, who would thus be 
awakened to an intelligent interest in the most attractive and 
beautiful creatures of animated nature. 
As the only lady speaker that afternoon, she would not, she 
supposed, have done her duty unless she said something on the use 
of plumes and feathers in women’s hats and bonnets. Almost 
everything had been said that could be said against the wearing of 
egret plumes and birds of paradise; but she would urge the 
members of the Society not to abate their zeal in the dissemination 
of knowledge on this subject, as she believed most women erred 
through ignorance. She herself had long remained unconscious 
of the cruelty involved in the custom, and needed a second con¬ 
version before she saw the duty of abandoning imitation aigrettes 
also, and thus ceasing to countenance such a fashion in any way. 
As to the votaries of fashion, it was difficult to know how to reach 
them. It was no use to point out how hideous and tasteless were 
the feathered erections now worn, for fashion had never been ruled 
by beauty. She read, however, an interesting notice in the Society’s 
Report, to the effect that a millinery business was being started 
under the patronage of the Society, at 8, Lower Seymour Street, 
and she was informed that Mrs. White would supply graceful and 
elegant headgear, while employing the feathers of no bird not 
used for food, except those of the ostrich. Such an undertaking 
could not flourish unless liberally supported, and she hoped that 
members of the Society would visit Mrs. White’s establishment, 
and make it known among their friends. 
In questions of fashion it was the women who incurred abuse, 
but there were other matters in which men were the principal 
offenders. She thought the Society might well protest against the 
killing of creatures for the mere sake of killing, and it certainly 
seemed to her that its members should be asked to refrain from 
eating larks. She did not believe that women were enthusiastically 
fond of eating larks, and long before she herself felt shocked by 
