MURDEROUS MILLINERY. 
7 
Warner, Mr. Mounsey, and other authorities, 
the rural population anxiously awaited the 
arrival of insect-eating birds to avert the 
destruction of their crops, but were too 
apathetic or too timid to make common 
cause against the shooters. 
Now (1900) Sir Charles Lawson writes 
that the efiects of the continuous depreda¬ 
tions of a long series of years may be noticed 
by any man when he passes paddy fields, 
or strolls through silent, because birdless, 
plantations or forests. He states that the 
present famine in India shows, incidentally, 
the vital importance of preventing the waste 
of food grain, and he recommends that the 
export of bird-skins from India be prohibited. 1 
The “ immoral acquiescence ” which has 
been described as one of the characteristic 
sins of our time cannot be attributed to the 
Press with respect to bird-destruction. The 
leading journals have not only themselves 
appealed to their readers on behalf of the 
birds, but have invited the co-operation of 
the clergy on the ground that “ if in every 
pulpit in the land this shocking story of the 
egrets were told, surely for once humanity 
would prove stronger than fashion.” 2 
The story of the egrets has not been told 
in many pulpits, but it was told in the House 
of Commons in brief and business-like words 
by the chairman of the Chambers of Com¬ 
merce, Sir John Lubbock (now Lord Ave¬ 
bury), with the gratifying result that the 
sanction of her Majesty has been obtained to 
the disuse of osprey plumes in the army and 
the substitution of those of the ostrich. 
1 Articles by Sir Charles Lawson. Madras Mail , 
March 27 and April 11, 1900. 
2 The Times, October 17, 1893. 
