FOWLS OF THE AIR. 
7 
tlie Birds of the British Islands.” These are most faithful and 
lifelike representations of these birds in their nuptial dress. At the 
pairing season long filiform feathers spring from the back and fall 
like a bridal veil over the snowy plumage. That such exquisite 
creatures should meet with short shrift on the rare occasions 
when they visit these islands is only in accordance with our 
invariable treatment of rare birds. John Buskin has written the 
mournful elegy of the last white egret known to have been killed 
in England, and told how this “ living cloud rather than a bird, 
with its frostwork of dead silver,” was battered to death by a 
labouring man and sold to a neighbouring birdstuffer. That is 
only what we must expect from labouring men as long as people 
who are not under the necessity of labouring remain ignorantly 
indifferent. Surely ignorance is the only cause of this indifference ! 
Surely no lady would buy one of these egret plumes—dyed, as they 
often are, red, blue or even black—if she remembered that they 
were once the bridal dress of an innocent bird; that, in order to 
supply them, peaceful colonies must be invaded and ruthlessly 
violated at the most sacred season of the year; and that this heart¬ 
less trade must soon end in the total extermination of white herons. 
To what purpose, some hardworking philanthropist may be 
heard saying, is all this outcry about the sufferings of birds, when 
such clamant need exists for the relief of human want and misery ? 
Will it not be time enough to take up the cause of the first when 
that of the last has been finally and successfully redressed ? That 
might be so if man were neutral in his dealings with these wild 
things ; if, instead of exerting himself. to destroy and torment 
them, he left them undisturbed. This is no appeal for mission 
work among fowls, but for the conversion of human beings from 
inhuman practices. The fourth annual meeting of an admirable 
young Society—the Society for the Protection of Birds—was lately 
held in the Westminster Palace Hotel. Originally started for the 
purpose of discouraging the “ plume ” trade by informing women 
about its true nature, it has lately extended its scope so as to 
grapple with needless and wanton destruction of birds. It does 
not clamour for legislation ; there is plenty of that already, and to 
