334 WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 



ing of an 'aigrette' is a symbol of rapacious cru- 

 elty. 



' ' You know, or you ought to know, that twenty 

 years ago, there were thousands of Egrets in 

 Florida, and that now, nothing keeps the breed 

 alive, save that the United States Government and 

 the Audubon Society have taken over the islands 

 on which the last few colonies remain, and that 

 the Audubon Society — a private organization, de- 

 pending for its support on the subscriptions of 

 intelligent people — pays the salaries of wardens 

 to keep the plume-hunters from exterminating the 

 few colonies that remain. A few of the birds are 

 also guarded on the Federal bird refuges, and the 

 species may still be saved from total extinction. 



"You know, or you ought to know, that the 

 United States has passed the strictest laws against 

 the shooting of an Egret, against the sale of 

 aigrettes, against the shipment of the feathers, 

 and, in some places, against the possession of the 

 same. 



*'Yet the women of America will pay almost 

 any price to bribe plume-hunters to creep upon the 

 nests at night and murder the parent birds. Many 

 women of America rejoice in nothing so much as 

 displaying the badge of their hired murders, or at 



