FOWLS OF THE AIR . 
5 
scientific ” work. The evil must indeed be crying that wrings 
from the learned Professor such strong expressions of displeasure. 
Of course, when unsanctified man presumes to make observa¬ 
tions upon ladies’ dress, he must be prepared for the consequences. 
He will be told that he knows nothing about it; that he had 
better mind his own business and look after the beam in his own 
eye. Certainly I am ready to admit that it would not impart the 
faintest thrill of pleasure either to myself or, I fancy, to anyone 
else, except rude little boys in the street, were I to walk about 
with a humming-bird on one side of my hat, a golden oriole on the 
other, and a so-called “osprey ” in the middle. All that I venture 
to assert is, that if ladies knew the realities of the plume trade, 
they would either discard feathers altogether, or, snajqhng their 
fingers at the tyrants of fashion, use ostrich plumes, cut from 
birds bred for the purpose, and the feathers of those domestic 
birds, game or wild fowl, which are sold for food. Would that 
every lady in London would pay a single visit to the East India 
Docks, and see the millions and millions of bird skins, ransacked 
from all the fairest places of the earth, to enable fashionable folk, 
and their imitators, to comply with a senseless decree. It would 
be an insult to the charms of Englishwomen were anyone to 
suggest that their influence can be enhanced by the use of feathers. 
At the present moment, it seems, feathers, except ostrich plumes 
and the above-mentioned “osprey” (of which more presently), are 
out, and ribbons are in. Will any man be so foolhardy as to 
assert that, in consequence, he is less liable to lose his head or his 
heart? Every hue that ever shone on feathered fowl can be 
imitated in Coventry ribbons. Would it not be better to provide 
employment for our own working class in legitimate home industry 
than to stimulate among South Sea islanders and longshore 
loafers the greed of exterminating some of the loveliest creatures 
on Gfod’s earth ? 
Two instances, one of the ingratitude, the other of the cruelty, 
of milliners’ fashions, must suffice to illustrate the urgency of the 
case. 
A few years ago owls’ “ plumes ” were the rage for ladies’ hats. 
