THE EGRET 



145 



This traffic has almost exterminated the two plume-bearing 

 species of white herons found in the United States, — the 

 Snowy Heron, a small species, with curling plumes, and the 

 much larger American Egret, with straight ones. There are 

 several other closely similar species in South America and 



FEMALE EGKET ON HER NEST 



in other parts of the world. At the present rate of destruc- 

 tion, a decade or two more will make each of these American 

 and foreign herons as extinct as the wild buffalo and the 

 Great Auk. Then where will woman get her aigrettes ? Why 

 could she not just as well cease wearing them now as a 

 dozen years hence, and save these harmless and beautiful 

 birds to fill their proper place in the natural economy ? 



That the work of destruction is going on with rapidity, one 

 cannot fail to realize who has been to Florida. There, years 



