ORNITHOLOGY. 



139 



had become so weak that their legs 

 had refused to support them, and they 

 had fallen from the nests into the 

 water below, and had been miserably 

 drowned; while, in the trees above, the 

 remainder of the parentless young 

 ones could be seen staggering in the 

 nests, some of them falling with a 

 splash into the water, as their waning" 

 strength left them too exhausted to 

 hold up any longer, while others sim- 

 ply stretched themselyes out on the 

 nest and so expired. Others, again. 



manner such beautiful birds — the em- 

 bodiment of all that is pure, graceful 

 and good? 



"In one tree at the heronry the 

 nests of the plumed egret (Me^ophoyx 

 plumifera ) and egret | Herodias timo- 

 ric/isis) were seen. In another large 

 tree a photo was taken of two young 

 plumed egret and one young large 

 egret together in the same nest. 

 These three birds were the sole sur- 

 yiyors of several broods of both spe- 

 cies which had nested together in the 



FATHERLESS AXD .MOTHERLESS— XO ONE TO FEED THEM— 

 GROWING WEAKER— OXE ALREADY DEAD FROM STARVA- 

 TION AXD, EXPOSURE 

 Photographed by A. H. E. Mattingley. 



were seen trying in vain to attract the 

 attention of passing egrets, which 

 were flying with food in their bills to 

 feed their own young, and it was a 

 pitiful sight indeed to see these starve- 

 lings with outstretched necks and gap- 

 ing bills imploring the passing birds 

 to feed them. What a sickening sight ! 

 How my heart ached for them! How 

 could any one but a cold-blooded, cal- 

 lous monster destroy in this wholesale 



same tree. They had evidently 

 sought one another's company, be- 

 cause all the balance of the nest- 

 lings had expired through lack of 

 nourishment, their parents having 

 been shot by the plume-hunters, 

 or, rather, 'plume-plunderers.' 1 



A like gruesome story is given by 

 Mr. William L. Finley, Northwest 

 Field Agent of the National Associa- 

 tion of Audubon Societies, after he had 



