THE PLUMAGE BILL.
(To THE EDITOR. OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Mr. Massingham's wilderness of words in his last letter is designed to evade the categorical points on which I challenged him in your issue of February 12th. One thing only that he now says has any relevance. The Director of the Port Elizabeth Museum being insufficient shelter, Mr. Massingham attempts to add Mr. W. P. Pycraft to his stockade. Precisely when and where Mr. Pycraft laid down the generalization about the "extinction" of birds of paradise I am unable at the moment to discover. However, Mr. Massingham trustingly quotes him, and it would be of assistance in this controversy if Mr. Pycraft would make public the exact scientific data upon which he bases his generalization. The whole trouble with Mr. Massinghain's " evidence " always is that it is not evidence but assertion.-1
1, 2 and 3 Oxford Court and 97 Cannon Street, E.C. 4.
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