4 JULY 1891, Page 21

ANIMAL ASTHETICS.

[To TIER EDITOR OF THR sFIGTATOR.°9 Sin,—In connection with the article in the Spectator of May 2nd, giving examples of the love of beauty by animals, your readers may be interested in the following case of vanity— shall we call it ?—lately told us by a missionary friend of ours. She with her husband was stationed at Negapatam, where the ubiquitous sparrow would appear to be more ubiquitous than usual. Anyhow, Mrs. L— was much bothered by the birds coming in to look at themselves in the looking-glass in her dressing-room, till at last she covered the glass with a towel. But the birds were not to be beaten. One day, on entering the room, she caught them at it again, one of the pair holding back a corner of the towel, while the other—and, alas for the credit of our sex ! I have to confess that it was the cock-bird —was viewing his beauties in the glass.—I am, Sir, &c.,