ON THE SHORE 371 



peaceful colony, show themselves with bold brutality. 

 For well they know that the devoted parents will suffer 

 death rather than leave tiieir young in such danger. 



" Shot upon shot rings out in repeated volleys, each 

 followed in turn by the piteous cries of wounded birds, 

 till the ground is strewn with hundreds of the dead and 

 dying. Then the cruel hunters tear off tlie plume- tuft 

 from the back of each victim, as the savage does a 

 human scalp, and move on in search of another heronry, 

 to repeat this inhuman slaughter of the innocents. 



" But this is not all — what becomes of the young 

 birds? They must either perish slowly of hunger, 

 or be swallowed by the snakes that infest such places 

 and are attracted to tlie nests by the clamoring of the 

 starving orphans. Now do you wonder that I call this 

 beautiful Snowy Egret the Bonnet Martyr?" 



" I never, never will wear any kind of bird's feathers 

 again," said Dodo ; " and when I go back to school I 

 am going to make a guild for people who will promise 

 not to either. Are Ostriches killed for their feathers. 

 Uncle Roy ? Because my best winter hat has a curly 

 row all round the crown." 



" No. Ostrich plumes are a perfectly harmless deco- 

 ration, for the bird earns his own and his master's liv- 

 ing by growing them, without losing his life. They 

 are the only kind of feathers that should ever be worn 

 for ornament." 



'' Has the Great Blue Heron pretty feathers like a 

 Bluebird ? " asked Nat, who felt sorry for the fate of 

 the Egrets, but did not like to show it and so tried to 

 turn the subject. 



"He is of a slate-gray color, which you might not 



