THE SNOWY EGRET. 



THIS beautiful bird takes advantage of our being 

 in Bird World to interest us in the saving of his 

 family from utter destruction. 



The food of the Heron family is in watery places, 

 and they get it for the most part by wading. The 

 long legs and neck show how nature has provided 

 the birds for their place. For their beauty she gave 

 them an almost fatal gift. If you were to count in an 

 audience of ladies the soft, light, graceful feathers, 

 called aigrettes, worn in black, white, yellow, blue, — 

 all colors, — you can guess in advance the pitiful story 

 the bird of our lesson has to tell, for he is the Snowy 

 Egret. 



The case is one of the most pitiful in Bird 

 World. To meet the demand of fashion, the plume- 

 lets have to be cut from the bird when they first 

 come to perfection. All that has been said of birds' 

 wedding suits shows that this is the time when the 

 wearer of the plumes is most necessary to his family. 

 So absorbed is he in what goes to make up family 

 life that he forgets to exercise the wary habits which 

 the Nature-fairy sets over against her dangerous gift 

 of beautiful adornment. 



